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She loved her mother, but did she really know her?
As their mother Milly lies dying, the four Highdown Hall sisters gather at her bedside. For months, the youngest daughter, Zoe, has cared for Milly in the family home. The older sisters all have homes of their own, so Zoe will inherit the crumbling manor house and continue their mother’s legacy.
But then they read their mother’s will: Zoe is cut out of Highdown Hall entirely—the house goes to her sisters. Zoe is utterly shocked and devastated—did she not know her mother at all?
With tensions rising between the sisters, Zoe begins sorting through Milly’s belongings, trying to find something to help her understand. When she discovers a mysterious iron key that fits no door, she is left only with more questions. What was this terrible secret her mother could never speak about?
As Zoe begins to dig into the past, she tries to hold onto her memories of the mother she loved. But what could have been so devastating that Milly kept silent her whole life? And if Zoe uncovers the truth—will it destroy her forever?
Thrilling, emotional family drama for fans of Kathryn Hughes, Kristin Hannah, and Emily Gunnis.
Publisher: Lake Union
Format: Ebook, Audiobook & Paperback (1 May 2026)
My thanks to Kelly of FolkPR for the tour invite and for the extract.
EXTRACT
The skin on her hands and feet is tinged grey and purple now. Like a giant bruise creeping across her body. Zoe lays her mother’s hand back on the sheet and looks up at the nurse.
‘It won’t be long now, Zoe,’ says the nurse, her eyes soft. ‘It’s long past time to call them. They do have a right to know. To be here.’
Zoe nods and strokes her mother’s hand, skin like tracing paper stretched across her knobbly veins, but still as soft as she remembers from holding as a child. Her finger catches on her mother’s loose gold wedding band and she slips it back into place.
Do they have a right? she wonders. They’ve known Mum was seriously ill for months, years. But they’ve each had their justifications for not coming back home to Highdown Hall. To leaving Mum’s careto her. She twists her three silver bands around her thumb.
Fiona she can almost excuse. Singapore is a world away and the last thing Zoe wanted was Fi flying back and forth to London every time Mum dipped. More pointless emissions. Best she stayed there until there was no choice but to return. Is that now? She swallows and looks up at her mother’s face. Her eyes are shut, the silver scar on her temple barely visible now her skin is so pale, her slack mouth revealing her yellowing teeth. Zoe hasn’t brushed them for over a week now. It upset Mum the last time she tried and the nurse says not to bother. You know you’re ill when they tell you not to brush your teeth. Mum has enjoyed the occasional Zoom with Fi, although the time difference has been tricky recently with Mum’s erratic sleeping. Fi all dressed up in smart suits and gold bling, picking up the laptop to show Mum the skyline of a city she’ll never see.
Sara is busy with her three children. Zoe glances at the photo on the bedside table – a soft-focus studio shot of Sara holding the baby with the twins smiling down at her. There’s the familiar twist in her stomach. Mum insisted it be moved there from the drawing room though there’s not really enough space with all the medical paraphernalia. But the Surrey Hills are only forty miles away. There are trains. Sara did call last week to see how Mum was, and she asked how Zoe was doing. Which Fi never does. But still. Sara’s got a husband to look after the kids. Zoe blows air up into her fringe.
It’s Steph’s silence Zoe can’t understand. She only lives ten miles away. No children, no big job. And she’s the eldest. Traditionally, it was the eldest child who took responsibility for everyone. Steph has never done that. She’s always been the first to run away from any family issue, the first to give her excuses not to attend something. She was late for their father’s funeral, for God’s sake. But then Steph has always been different from them all. Distant. Reclusive. Happy to rescue anything with four legs, but no interest in her own family. So it’s been left to her, Zoe, to nurse their mother. Zoe refills her mother’s beaker from the jug, water sloshing on to her hands as she clicks the sippy lid back into place. She wipes them on her dungarees and looks back at her mother.
Cathy trained as a journalist and wrote about everything from accounting and supply chains to football finances and port strategy before moving into public relations. In 2022, after having spent a lifetime pottering around bookshops, she bought Kemptown Bookshop in Brighton, where she has created a community hub that supports local authors and aspiring writers. In 2023, she took on management of The Creative Writing Programme, the leading independent centre for creative writing teaching in the south-east of England – the course that set her on track to be a writer. When she’s not writing (or reading), Cathy loves pottering in other people’s bookshops. She lives in Brighton with her three children and two rescue cats.
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