What Awards Has Me And My Shadows: A Family Memoir Won?

Die Schatten meiner Vergangenheit Vor einem Jahr wurde Angels Leben in einer einzigen Nacht zerstört. Nachdem ihre Eltern brutal ermordet wurden, musste sie fliehen, ihre Identität aufgeben und alles zurücklassen, was sie jemals geliebt hatte. Unter einem neuen Namen versucht sie in einer fremden Stadt ein normales Leben aufzubauen. Doch die Vergangenheit lässt sich nicht so leicht begraben. Jede Nacht wird sie von Albträumen verfolgt, und die Angst, entdeckt zu werden, begleitet jeden ihrer Schritte. Als ein geheimnisvoller und gefährlich attraktiver Mann ihren Weg kreuzt, gerät ihre mühsam aufgebaute Welt ins Wanken. Seine kalten Blicke scheinen mehr über sie zu wissen, als er sollte, und schon bald erkennt Angel, dass ihre Flucht möglicherweise nie wirklich beendet war. Während dunkle Geheimnisse ans Licht kommen und alte Feinde näher rücken, muss Angel entscheiden, wem sie vertrauen kann. Doch in einer Welt voller Verrat, Macht und Blut kann die falsche Entscheidung tödlich sein. Manche Vergangenheiten bleiben begraben. Andere kommen zurück, um alles zu zerstören.

My mother hated me, to the point that she wished I were dead. I knew I deserved to die. Sixteen years ago, if I hadn’t insisted on going out, my brother wouldn’t have died while trying to save me. Eventually, both of us got what we wished for. I got brain cancer. She had become a stranger to me as I forgot everything and went to die in blissful ignorance. Then, she went mad.

My brother, Theo Sorento, died in a plane crash on his way back home just to celebrate my birthday. They never found his body—only wreckage. Ever since, my parents forced me to kneel in front of his grave every year on my birthday, demanding that I repent for surviving when he didn’t. Then came my eighteenth birthday. I realized someone was following me. Panicked, I sent a few messages asking for help. Just then, Mom called, not to check on me but to lash out. “I know exactly what you're doing. You’re just making up excuses so you don’t have to kneel in front of your brother’s grave! You’re a liar. Why wasn’t it you who died instead of him? You’re a walking curse!” Before my phone was smashed under a boot, the last thing I heard was the cold click of her hanging up. Then, I was cut up into pieces, and what was left of me was tossed across the city. My father, the lead forensic pathologist on my case, didn’t even recognize me. Later, Theo returned alive with his wife, whom he had eloped with eight years ago. When they found out the pile of rotting flesh was me, they all went insane.

My sister was the golden child, the pride of our family, but she had a rare blood disorder that required treatments costing thousands every month. To keep her alive, I became her personal blood donor, working nonstop to pay for her care and delivering food all day and night. But one day, she nearly died from hemorrhaging after trying to abort a pregnancy. That’s when I learned the child she was carrying belonged to my boyfriend. When I confronted him, he didn’t even flinch. Instead, he dragged me to the operating table himself. “You were born to be her blood bank. Dying for her? It’s the best thing you’ll ever do.” I was left there, bleeding out, my life slipping away with every drop. But as death closed in, something changed. The people who once hoped I’d disappear—the ones who used me, betrayed me—they all began to unravel, losing their insanity.

After his sister is brutally attacked and crippled investigating the rape of a thirteen-year-old, Richard Baimbridge rushes back to his hometown of Wilmington, NC, to assist in her recovery only to come face to face with his tormented past and a dark family secret. Serving as his sister's legs, he fights to stay above the flood of childhood trauma as he is drawn into the dark underside of this quiet coastal community where he becomes the primary suspect in the murders of Wilmington's young girls in this riveting suspense thriller that explores the special bond between a brother and sister. More than 500,000 copies sold worldwide. "Bill Benners is a fresh and welcomed new voice in crime fiction. My Sister's Keeper is a compelling and original psychological thriller. Awesome, powder-keg suspense!" --Andrew McAleer, Crimestalker Casebook/crimestalkers.com

Celeste Cox sent me a photo on WhatsApp. I opened it to find a picture of the school heartthrob and me in an intimate embrace, the pose as suggestive as could be.