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Nicole gets the call at 4 a.m. Her daughter Lacey was found in the woods beside her friend's dead husband. He was stabbed forty-four times. Lacey is barely alive. Covered in his blood. And completely mute.
She hasn't said a word since. Not to the police. Not to her husband. Not even to Nicole.
Nicole had Lacey at seventeen and swore her daughter would have a good life. Now Lacey is sitting in a cell, and Nicole's three grandchildren are left behind with a father who is losing it.
But Nicole knows her daughter. She isn't a cold-blooded murderer. Guilt didn't silence her. Fear did. Whatever happened in those woods scared Lacey more than prison.
So Nicole starts digging. But some secrets don't save people. They destroy them.
Read an Excerpt
I strode past carts and nurses, straight down the hall, and yanked open the door to room 12.
But I wasn't ready for what was waiting inside. My body jerked back as my hand shot up to my neck. "Dear God."
Lacey sat upright on the bed, wearing a hospital gown. A doctor stood over her, shining a light into her eyes. Two nurses flanked him.
I almost didn't recognize her.
Her hair was soaked in dried blood. Matted. Tangled with dirt and leaves. Thick blood streaks ran down her neck and across her temple like Viking war paint. Her face and arms looked like someone had tried to wipe her clean with a wet napkin and given up halfway. Just smears of pink and red everywhere.
The bandage on her forehead was already smudged with red too.
Her eyes met mine. Brown, blank, dull. Nothing behind them.
"Sweetheart!" My voice fell apart. Tears burst out of me as I crossed the room in two desperate strides and grabbed her. Held her. Pressed her to my chest so tight nothing could tear her away again.
Not even the nurse who latched onto my arm.
"Ma'am, you can't be in here right now." Her voice was sharp and demanding.
I didn't move.
The other nurse came at me from the side. Hands on my other arm.
"You need to wait outside," she said, yanking at me.
"Get off me," I growled.
About the Author: S. T. Ashman is an American-German author who calls the beautiful U.S. Seacoast home. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, she spent years working as a psychotherapist in the criminal justice system. The work gave her a rare window into the human mind, both the beautiful and the deeply shadowed. It's no wonder readers often say her characters feel real enough to step off the page.
When she's not crafting her next twisty tale, you'll find her chasing after her kids, nose-deep in a book, or curled up late at night with a horror movie and a husband who always falls asleep on the couch before the scary parts.
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Link to ARC on Netgalley: https://www.netgalley.com/catalog/book/830451
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