Arthur attempted to order Phoebe to withdraw her statements; she refused to meet with him at all.

Flynn floated enormous financial settlements through intermediaries; Mabel rejected every one of them, unread.

And when money and intimidation both failed, the rumors began — the old, reliable weapon.

A whisper went around the county that Mabel had seduced a visiting billionaire, and turned him against the Vances, out of pure vengeful spite.

But this time, Mabel was not standing alone in the dark, and that changed everything about how the whisper traveled.

Because this time, the truth was on the move, and people who had stayed silent for four years began, one by one, to find their courage in the space the truth had opened.