Baker's Dozen - Paperback

by C. L. Merklinger (Author)

Every family recipe has its secrets. Hers are lethal...

Harmony Hollow thinks it knows Riley Baker. Dutiful daughter. Skilled baker. A woman grieving the sudden death of her mother, Paulina.But Riley knows the truth. Paulina wasn't the sainted matriarch everyone adored - she was a predator. A master of control who shaped her daughter in silence and shadows. Now the bakery, and everything it conceals, belongs to Riley. And with it comes the crushing weight of choice: bury her mother's legacy, or surrender to it. As she struggles to maintain her carefully crafted mask, the lessons Paulina drilled into her refuse to fade, echoing like a second heartbeat. And in the quiet corners of town, a presence lingers - someone watching, someone who knows too much, someone ready to tear the mask away. Baker's Dozen is a descent into inheritance and identity, a story of a woman trapped between who she was made to be and who she dares to become. Dark, relentless, and impossible to put down, it asks a chilling question: when violence is baked into your bloodline, can you ever truly escape it? Some legacies you escape. Others are in your blood.