Piper

When dreams and reality clash.Piper Goodson is looking forward to all the firsts of being a mother. The first cry, the first glance, the first time holding the tiny life created by her and Evan's love. But after an emergency c-section, sick from fear, and haunted by images of the past, Piper is barely aware that she's given birth. As she holds her daughter, a bone-numbing anxiety surfaces. Who is this tiny person, and where's the nurturing Piper had thought would come so naturally? The brat is getting exactly what she deserves.Madison Stanley is twelve years older than her sister and resents the interloper who stole her father's time and attention. Even Piper's willingness, two years before, to be a surrogate mother was suspect. But desperate for a child, Madison had agreed. That arrangement ended in the heartbreak of a still born baby girl. Madison blames Piper. Her baby would be alive if Piper had taken better care of herself. Now she looks on in secret delight as Piper confronts her own struggles. A wolf in sheep's clothing.As a mental health professional, Madison recognizes all of the symptoms of Piper's postpartum anxiety, and she knows how to cash in on it. If she has her way, Piper will understand what it means to lose a child. Small-town Oklahoma and the friendships they produce are embedded in Sharon Srock's heart. After spending her first fifteen years on the move, living in fourteen homes and attending thirteen schools, she landed in a tiny central Oklahoma community and made it her own. As someone who's been blessed to be a part of the same hometown church for more than five decades, Sharon writes stories of hope built from her own unique perspective-stories that demonstrate a sisterhood formed not by blood but by heart, where ordinary women are able to do extraordinary things thanks to the friends who surround them and the faith that pulls them through. Sharon still lives in the middle of nowhere, Oklahoma, with her husband and three very large dogs. When she isn't writing, she loves to read, cook, and travel. One of these days, she's going to figure out how to do all three at the same time.