"Each staccato chapter adds new and unexpected turns, so many you could get whiplash just turning a page. Scottoline knows how to keep readers in her grip." -TheNew York Times Book Review

Nobody could have foreseen what would happen the day that Rose McKenna volunteers in the cafeteria of her daughter's elementary school. Rose does it to keep a discreet eye on her third-grader, Melly, a sweet, if shy, child who was born with a facial birthmark that has become her own personal bull's-eye. Melly has been targeted by the mean girl at their new school and gets bullied every day, placing Rose in a no-win position familiar to parents everywhere. Do we step in to protect our children when they need us, or does that make things worse?

When the bully starts to tease Melly yet again, Rose is about to leap into action-but right then, the unthinkable happens. Rose finds herself in a nightmare, faced with an emergency decision that no mother should ever have to make. Would she sacrifice another mother's child to save her own? What she decides in that split second derails Rose's life and jeopardizes everything she holds dear-her family, her marriage-and even her own life...

"A white-hot crossover novel about the perils of mother love."-Kirkus Reviews