Book excerpt: How long can the terrible secrets of the past remain buried? As the caskets of her adoptive parents are lowered into the ground, sixteen-year-old Jessica has no idea what her future holds. All too soon, however, she finds herself forcibly separated from her sister and sent to live with an aunt she has never known. Aunt Carson, a high-society gold digger, will do whatever it takes to get her hands on Jessica's sizeable inheritance-even if it means betraying her own son, even if it means resorting to murder.