Then She Was Gone

Ten years ago, Ellie Mack, a bright and beloved fifteen-year-old, walked out of her house and vanished without a trace. Her mother, Laurel, has never given up hope, but the disappearance shattered her family and left her life frozen in time. A decade of unanswered questions has passed, and Laurel is finally trying to move forward. She meets a charismatic man in a café, and for the first time in years, feels the possibility of happiness again.

The fragile new beginning is shaken when Laurel meets her new partner's nine-year-old daughter. The girl's name is Poppy, and she is the spitting image of the long-gone Ellie. This unsettling resemblance sends Laurel spiraling back into the past, forcing her to confront the dark questions she has tried to bury. The closer she gets to this charming man and his precocious daughter, the more she realizes that the answers to what happened to Ellie lie in a place she never would have suspected, and the truth is more disturbing than she could have imagined.