Locked

In a house defined by order, Jaz has learned to survive by staying small.

Homeschooled and carefully monitored by a father who calls his vigilance protection, she moves through her days according to schedule, each rule meant to keep her safe from a world he believes is waiting to harm her.

Her brothers see something different. They see isolation. They see fear disguised as love. And when they try to widen her world, one afternoon unravels into panic, confirming their father's darkest suspicions and fracturing the fragile balance inside the home.

As long-buried history begins to surface, it becomes clear that Andrew is not only protecting his daughter, but he is protecting himself from a grief he never survived. And Jaz, caught between safety and suffocation, must confront a truth that threatens to dismantle everything he has built:

She is not a second chance.
She is not a replacement.
She is not his past.

She is herself.

A quiet, piercing portrait of generational trauma, control born from love, and the difficult work of untangling fear from devotion, this novel asks what it means to protect someone, and when protection becomes its own kind of harm.