"She walked out of the towers on 9/11-and into a life she was never meant to live."From the author of The Essence of Shade comes Deborah Jean Miller's Escaping Pretense-a gripping tale of deception, survival, and unexpected redemption. At its center is a woman who has perfected the art of manipulation-unlovable, calculating, and dangerously adept at bending others to her will. When her schemes of embezzlement threaten to unravel, fate intervenes in the most unimaginable way: she walks out of the burning towers on 9/11 and vanishes into the chaos.With the world believing she perished that day, she seizes the chance to become someone new. Far from New York, in a foreign land, she struggles to reconcile her past sins with the fragile life she has built. As layers of her hardened exterior begin to crack, compassion-once foreign to her nature-quietly takes root, forcing her to face questions she has long buried: Can a heart trained in deception learn to love? And is true forgiveness ever possible for a soul steeped in betrayal?Suspenseful, thought-provoking, and ultimately moving, Escaping Pretense is a story of reinvention born from tragedy-a novel that will captivate readers who love women's fiction layered with intrigue, moral complexity, and the haunting search for grace.
