Kanawha River Secrets

Rowan Cade came back to Charleston to bury his father.

He did not come back for answers.

He did not come back for Tessa Rourke—the woman he loved, left, and never truly escaped.

But when Tessa appears at the funeral with a mysterious brass key left behind by her late husband, Rowan is pulled into a secret his father took to the grave. The key leads to a hidden lockbox, a dead investigator’s notes, and a conspiracy tied to Ashford Place—a fire that destroyed lives, erased records, and made powerful men rich.

As Rowan and Tessa follow the trail of old land transfers, stolen files, corrupt officials, and buried evidence, they discover the lie that drove them apart twelve years ago was only one piece of something much darker.

Someone in Charleston has protected the truth for years.

And now Rowan and Tessa are getting too close.

Forced together by danger and the past neither of them has survived cleanly, they must decide whether justice is worth the cost—and whether two people broken by the same lie can find their way back to each other.

A dark, atmospheric romantic suspense novel about buried secrets, second-chance love, family betrayal, and the cost of uncovering the truth.