The Pawnbroker's Daughter

Tessa Okonjo has kept her father's pawnshop alive with duct tape, charm, and a ledger she writes in pencil. When Sir Edward Vane dies, the shop and its debts go to three men who have never worked a counter: the dead man's grandson, his estate manager, and his driver. The will says they have one year to run the place together or lose everything. Tessa offers them a deal they cannot refuse and cannot control—her name on the deed, her expertise for their money, her rules. Twelve months, four signatures, one failing building in South London. She is going to teach three rich men what a thing is worth, and they are going to learn what she is worth. When Vane's family sues to break the will, Tessa answers with a bundle of letters nobody knew existed, and a partnership nobody meant to keep.