Dan Mercer is a social worker known as a friend to troubled teens. He walks into a trap set by Wendy Tynes, reporter and anchor at NTC News, who believes that Dan is just another child rapist and that her methods to trap him are justified.

Wendy is single and will never forgive the women who were driving drunk and killed her husband. She sees herself as fair-minded with an instinct for right and wrong. When Dan calls her, insisting on his innocence, her instincts tell her not to listen.

Dan is soon also tied to the disappearance of a seventeen-year-old Haley McWaid, and Wendy should see this as confirmation of his guilt, but it leads to her doubting her instincts about the motives of the people around her.

Wendy’s efforts to understand what happens to lead her to Ed Grayson, one of the fathers of families whose child has been abused. Ed tries to get Wendy to help him kill Dan Mercer. Wendy is soon looking into Ed and his associates, and the plot twists and turns and gets complicated.

The story is about the motives of the people around Wendy and the community shocked by what happens. The plot ends with a hard look at the true nature of guilt and forgiveness.

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Brent M. Jones

Brent writes with quiet confidence and curiosity, exploring communication, reinvention, and what truly matters. His reflections invite readers to slow down, reconsider their stories, and reconnect with the values that guide them. Through books, essays, and his What Matters newsletter, he offers writing that doesn’t shout—but still speaks clearly.