At age eighty-two and in failing health, Olivia Morrow
knows she has little time left. The last of her line, she
faces a momentous choice: expose a long-held family
secret, or take it with her to her grave.
Olivia has in her possession letters from her deceased
cousin Catherine, a nun, now being considered for
beatification by the Catholic Church—the final step before
sainthood. In her lifetime, Sister Catherine had founded
seven hospitals for disabled children. Now the cure of a
four-year-old boy dying of brain cancer is being
attributed to her. After his case was pronounced medically
hopeless, the boy’s desperate mother had organized a
prayer crusade to Sister Catherine, leading to his
miraculous recovery.
The letters Olivia holds are the evidence that Catherine
gave birth at age seventeen to a child, a son, and gave
him up for adoption. Olivia knows the identity of the
young man who fathered Catherine’s child: Alex Gannon, who
went on to become a world-famous doctor, scientist, and
inventor holding medical patents.
Now, two generations later, thirty-one-year-old
pediatrician Dr. Monica Farrell, Catherine’s
granddaughter, stands as the rightful heir to what remains
of the family fortune. But in telling Monica who she
really is, Olivia would have to betray Catherine’s wishes
and reveal the story behind Monica’s ancestry.
The Gannon fortune is being squandered by Alex’s nephews
Greg and Peter Gannon, and other board members of the
Gannon Foundation, who camouflage their profligate
lifestyles with philanthropy.
Now their carefully constructed image is cracking. Greg, a
prominent financier, is under criminal investigation, and
Peter, a Broadway producer, is a suspect in the murder of
a young woman who has been extorting money from him.
The only people aware of Olivia’s impending choice are
those exploiting the Gannon inheritance. To silence Olivia
and prevent Monica from learning the secret, some of them
will stop at nothing—even murder.
Clark’s riveting new novel explores the juxtaposition of
medical science and religious faith, and the search for
identity by the daughter of a man adopted at birth.