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.