THE REAPER'S LEDGER

Thaddeus Quell was nobody: a live-in husband turned doormat, slapped for clean floors, bankrupted by his mother-in-law's greed, cuckolded while he fetched groceries. Then his house burned with his wife, daughter, and tormentor inside. He rushed in. He saved them. He fell through fire.   And something answered.   A crimson ledger bloomed in his dying vision: touch the dying, see their death, let it happen for money, save them and pay with your life. Now Thaddeus is a billionaire walking corpse—gray hair spreading, organs failing, ghosts whispering vengeance. Every innocent he saves binds a fallen angel to his side. Every villain he lets die (or kills) feeds Echo, the growing shadow that wants the ledger for Hell's throne.   He wanted to die.   The system said no.   Heaven said fight.   Echo said come closer.   Now Thaddeus must decide: become the balance-keeper who reaps the wicked and spares the helpless, or let Echo harvest his soul and every child still screaming in the dark.