When Suzanna Duff was ten years old, she lost her mama, and that’s when the lies began. At first, they were just harmless little fibs, a way to hide her unbearable loneliness and the truth about a daddy who came home rip-roaring drunk every night. But in time, the lies grew bigger and now, when she is a grown woman with a daughter of her own, they threaten to destroy everything she loves.
The irony of this situation is that Suzanna never planned to stay in Georgia, she was simply passing through, looking for a fresh start in New Jersey. Attending that wake with her daughter Annie, was a fluke. An opportunity to enjoy a free meal. It should have entailed nothing more than a solemn nod and a brief expression of sympathy but, Ida Parker, the grieving widow mistook her for her granddaughter who was carried off as an infant. Too embarrassed to do anything else, Suzanna played along. What harm was there in pretending to be someone else for a few hours? Hours turned into days and days into weeks; strangers became friends, love happened, and before long a year had flown by.
Now the past is standing on her doorstep and Suzanna must decide to leave here and disappear as she has done before, or tell the truth and break the hearts of those she loves most.
Bette Lee Crosby is the USA Today bestselling author of twenty-five novels and recipient of over forty literary awards. Often hailed as a masterful storyteller, her novel Baby Girl was named Best Chick Lit of 2016 by Huffington Post and her 2019 release Emily, Gone won the International Book Award for Women’s Fiction. Crosby, a lover of small dogs and all things Southern, laughingly admits to being a night owl and a workaholic. She claims her guilty pleasure is late-night chats with fans and friends on Facebook. Her most recent release is Beyond Betrayal, a tale of loneliness, danger, and the friendship that gave a grieving widow a new purpose for her life.