After seven years, the girl in the basement has become a ghost to the rest of the world. When she finally escapes, every trace of who she used to be is gone: her home, her family, and even herself.
Joe and Tessa Holland are a young wealthy couple with no intent on ever having kids. But when their niece, Lizzie, is found trapped in a basement with another girl three months after her disappearance, they find themselves caring for a teenage girl they know nothing about.
Together, Joe and Tessa help the girl from the basement navigate the world that forgot her. But Lizzie's father's status as a star musician in Hollywood and his fame makes finding normalcy even trickier for her. Between the media circus surrounding her and Lizzie's escape, her fear of the unknown, and a traitor in their midst selling information about her life and whereabouts to the tabloids, she struggles to accept her identity and cope with her so-called "freedom."
Full list of content warnings: physical abuse, kidnapping of minors, manipulation, insinuation and mention of sexual abuse, depression, suicidal thoughts, mentions of drug addiction, and homelessness.
Recognition:
- 2024 Nano Watt winner (New Adult Contemporary category)
- 2024 Starlight Mini Awards, best cover & best first chapter
- Contemporary Lit Contemporary reading list
There's a girl who has bad mental health. She is a single mom of a one year old daughter. Her and her husband divorced because of always arguing. She was abused by her ex-husband. She didn't want to put her daughter through that. She is homeless because her ex-husband kept all the money.
Benjamin is a dad of a four year old daughter named Jo. Him and Stella got divorced recently but are co-parenting Jo. They live near each other so Jo wouldn't be far from either of them.
Benjamin ends up taking a walk with Jo one day to their friend's house and they end up meeting this girl and her daughter. They get to know each other.
Benjamin falls for her.
Started: July 3, 2024
Finished: July 7, 2024