Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 101427 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 507(@200wpm)___ 406(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101427 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 507(@200wpm)___ 406(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
“It was passed down to her through her bloodline. A gift. . .or maybe a burden. I don’t know. She never spoke of it.” He paused. “But I think it was her dream island. A place she always imagined escaping to when my father or life became too much for her to handle.”
“I’m still shocked she was able to hide a whole island from him.”
“Me too. Hiding something from the Fox is a great feat. That alone makes her a legend.” There was something in his tone—a boyish awe beneath the stoic surface. A son still lovingly adoring a ghost. “I learned about this place after she died.”
“How did you find out?”
He chuckled to himself. “My grandmother’s sister visited me late one night.”
My brows lifted.
“I was away in Singapore for business and asleep in my hotel.”
The wind curled around us.
He stepped closer to shield me from it. “Much to my Roar’s annoyance, my grandaunt and her men appeared without warning and demanded to see me. He had to wake me up. When I walked into the suite’s living room, she handed me a box wrapped in crimson cloth.”
“What did she say?”
“She told me she had waited years to be sure. That it wasn’t Jobon, and it definitely wasn’t my father. She said my mother had begged her—just once—to keep the island deed safe, and to give it to whichever of her sons came to her in a dream.”
“So your grandaunt dreamed of you?”
Kenji gave the smallest nod. “Apparently, a week before that night, she saw me in a white suit standing on a cliff holding a lighter. Behind me, the world was burning. But my face was calm.”
Goosebumps broke out along my skin.
“She told me, ‘One day, you’ll need a place to disappear. Somewhere no one can find you. Especially not the Fox.’ And then she handed me the box. Inside was the original deed—handwritten in ink and sealed in wax—with a family crest I’d never seen before. And a letter from my mother.”
“What did it say?”
Kenji’s voice went tight. “‘If you’re reading this, then I’m gone. And if I’m gone, you are no longer safe. The island is yours. Guard it like your heart. One day, it may be the only place left where you can be yourself.’”
He looked down for a second. I felt his hand flex slightly in mine.
Kenji sighed. “She knew he would break everything eventually. . .”
We kept walking.
His men followed behind us.
The path curved gently, revealing a broad overlook, and beyond it—sprawled across the cliffs like a sleeping lion—was tons of villas. Black tile roofs. Gold accents. Sliding wooden panels. Traditional yet modern all at once.
“I later found out that this island has been in my mother’s family since the Edo period,” Kenji said. “Her bloodline was samurai. From the Chōsokabe clan. A smaller house, but fierce and loyal to death. Most of them were killed off during the Meiji Restoration, when the samurai caste was abolished and westernization swept through Japan. But a few branches of the family survived.”
With every new detail, I felt myself slipping into writer mode.
My senses sharpened.
There was just so much here—history, inheritance, secrets passed down through blood. Samurai legacies buried beneath a modern mafia empire. A mother who protected a sacred place in silence, and a son now fighting to keep it alive.
It was all too much.
Too layered.
Too human to ignore.
I wanted to write a book about it.
Kenji continued, “Long ago, her family went into hiding. Changed their names. Became potters, tea masters, shrine caretakers—trades that looked gentle. Quiet. But beneath it, they kept everything that mattered. The discipline. The swordsmanship. The land. The pride.”
“So you have samurai blood in those veins?”
“I do. Her family followed Bushidō. Loyalty. Honor. Discipline. And vengeance, when necessary. My grandaunt was one of the last trained in the old ways. She knew how to fight with a short blade, how to track without sound, how to make a man vanish in the woods and never be found.”
“And she gave that knowledge to you?”
“She gave me the choice to claim it.”
We stopped again.
I turned to him, searching his face. “And did you?”
He met my eyes. “I didn’t just claim it, I built my empire on it.”
Standing there with him, on the island his mother had kept hidden like a final heartbeat, I understood something I hadn’t before.
Kenji wasn’t just fighting to win.
He was fighting to honor his mother and truly protect his legacy.
Now I understand even more.
“Once I took ownership of this island, I bought the surrounding islands over the years. Quietly. Carefully.”
“How many islands did you buy?”
“Seven. During the day you will get to see two of them across the channel.” He pointed to the West.
I looked but of course all I caught was darkness.
“Reo and Hiro didn’t even know about these islands until three years ago.”