Private Lives — Karen Young

Elizabeth Walker has spent most of the past three decades trying to forget the loss of her mother and father, a lonely childhood spent in a series of foster homes and the two baby sisters she hasn't seen in twenty-five years. She values her privacy above everything, and has built a wall around herself that few people have ever climbed.

But when her best friend, Gina, risks losing her young daughter to an impersonal court system -- the same system that failed Elizabeth many years ago -- she vows to fight back. But Elizabeth needs help. She needs the kind of help that a family can give, and she needs Ryan Paxton, the brilliant attorney whose tragic family history is intertwined with her own.

As the custody battle turns to something more dangerous -- and more deadly -- Elizabeth comes face-to-face with a past she has tried to forget and a future she wants to embrace.