Awakened by a struggle, a young girl hears her mother's voice at the threshold of her parents' bedroom. "Don't hurt me", the mother pleads. The girl pictures her father's menacing presence. She raps on the door. "Go back to bed," she's told, "everything is alright." But it isn't. Before morning's first light, her mother is dead, and the secret of what she heard is born. The secret becomes the girl's companion, accompanying her to school, infiltrating relationships, provoking imaginary illnesses, sweeping away memory. For thirty year,s the cause of death was said to be a cerebral hemorrhage, and then two more reasons emerge, all different. What was the essence of her mother while she was alive? How did she die? Why didn't she walk into the room when she heard her mother in distress? The young girl matures along with the secret as she tries to find the narrative that will give her closure, that will relieve the guilt she carries. ***** Legacy Book Press LLC is a traditional publisher of personal stories told via non-fiction, fiction, poetry, or a combination.