Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, especially if that woman happens to be an emotionally damaged and drop-dead gorgeous sociopath. Alice Parker and Simone Miroux have enjoyed a mutually parasitic friendship since their days at Ms. Porter's, a tony New England boarding school. Each has something the other wants. Alice's trust fund was worth nine figures when she was just a teen, but the tall, beaky blonde's social graces are sadly lacking. Simone was a throwaway child born to a clinically insane mother, and after aging out of foster care, was taken in by the posh school as its resident charity case. Stunning even then, Simone possessed an animal-like sense of how to cajole, manipulate and massage people to do exactly what she wants. In their strange quid pro quo, Simone helps makeover Alice into something fit for male consumption, in exchange for Alice bankrolling her. More than two decades later, the friends' bizarre symbiosis continues, on steroids. Alice is a star among Wall Street's elite Private Banking world, but Jeff, her religious nut of ex-husband, stalks her mercilessly, telling her she will die in a river of her on blood, at his hands. He leaves Alice prayer cards of Mary Magdalene, the Bible's most infamous whore, whenever he breaks into her home to silently watch her sleep. He has chased her out of five cities, and Manhattan is the last transfer her bank will allow. Alice has good cause for concern. The last woman he did this to wound up with her beloved dog inside her refrigerator, quite literally butchered into sixteen tiny deli packages, labeled by the cut of meat. After failing to conceive with her cop husband, Simone divorces and adopts a baby boy named Liam. He is ripped out of her arms a week later, when the birth mother changes her mind. Simone suffers a mental breakdown and can't bear to stay in the apartment where Liam's nursery remains intact, his tiny clothes still hanging in the closet. When Alice buys a ritzy townhome, she invites Simone to move in. Alice pays the bills and in many respects, Simone takes on a wifely role, helping masculine Alice with her wardrobe, makeup, and cooking her elaborate meals so she can focus on her steep ascent up New York City's fickle social caste system. Broody Simone has not forgotten little Liam, and is doing anything, and anyone, she can in the hopes of conceiving a child of her own. When the horrifically non-maternal Alice becomes pregnant after a one-night stand, and Simone's womb remains empty, the two women strike a deal, both will come to regret. Workaholic Alice will continue to win some serious bread, while Simone lovingly raises Alice's infant son, Adam. When Alice finds love with Sam Wrigley, the nuclear family the two women have created is shattered. Suddenly Simone's role is downsized from mother to her beloved Adam into that of Alice's handmaiden, being woken up to cook canapés at 3:00 a.m. for Alice's banker friends. With Jeff's stalking escalating and his threats now directed at little Adam, the baby Simone loves more than life itself, she decides to take care of Alice's nightmare ex husband herself, knowing it will win back Alice's favor and restore their family. What follows is one of the bloodiest and most gruesome crime sprees in Manhattan's history, dubbed the Virgin Mary murders. Readers are left satisfied, surprised, and with a deep, dark understanding of what pure parental love will drive someone to.
About the Author: Jessica Caris began her writing career at the tender age of 24, as a financial journalist and writer at CNN's New York bureau. She went on to be a writer and on-air reporter for Bloomberg Television, covering Wall Street and the financial markets. She is an award winning financial public relations executive, having represented private and public firms in the U.S. and abroad. Since she was a little girl, Jessica's mother said "she had a book in her," but for the next ten years, Caris mostly wrote on her clients' behalf, with articles published in national trade magazine such as Forbes, Barron's, IBD, HOW, Tennis, Inside Higher Education, Accounting Today and many others. Ms. Caris plays in many fictional genres, yet most enjoys the tender space of before and after a woman gives birth, as it drastically alters the dynamic of the familial unit. Jessica lives in Del Mar, CA with her four year old daughter, five year old son and rescue dog D'artagnan.