A missing billionaire.
A trafficked tiger.
A forgotten slum that refuses to stay quiet.
In Ward 17, the city only remembers you when something goes wrong.
Living under an alias in a makeshift room, Shak has walked away from boardrooms and headlines to become just another man in line for soup—quietly funneling his fortune into a struggling clinic and a community kitchen. His one indulgence is Dara, a rescued tiger sleeping in a dusty lot, illegally tethered in the heart of the slum.
When a corrupt councilor moves to seize the tiger for a public "crackdown," Ward 17 is suddenly dragged into the spotlight: inspections, missing medicines, media vans, and political deals. A sharp-eyed journalist smells a bigger story. An anonymous city clerk leaks the truth about stolen drugs. Kids paint slogans on walls. Neighbors bargain for lights, drains, and dignity.
As the city demands order and the law demands Dara's removal, Shak must decide whether to stay invisible—or step forward as the man everyone thought was gone, and risk turning a quiet act of generosity into a public reckoning.
Blending warmth, wit, and emotional punch, this novel explores power, poverty, and what happens when the people everyone overlooks learn to watch back.
