Book excerpt: A young woman burdened with the legacy of her family plays the unwitting puppet of a malevolent guardian. While friends, family, and her lover are all oblivious to the puppet master's influence, they, too, are subservient to its will. Enemies plot her demise. Law enforcement hunts her. Her family deceives her while her people, seduced by the promise of change, test her resolve with trickery. Only a miracle can save her. And he, too, wants to kill her.