In Briarwood, people trusted what they could see. They trusted neat houses, steady marriages, and men who showed up when they were needed. They trusted appearances.
Kathryn Whitmore has spent her life doing exactly that-maintaining the perfect house, the perfect appearance, the perfect life. But when her body begins to betray her in ways she can't explain, the carefully constructed facade starts to crack.
After leaving her first husband for Lawrence-a charming local musician everyone adores-Kathryn thought she'd found real love. Instead, she finds herself trapped in a marriage where devotion looks like control, where care feels like surveillance, and where a fall down the stairs leaves more questions than answers.
As a devastating diagnosis strips away her independence piece by piece, Kathryn must navigate an impossible choice: stay with the husband who may have pushed her, or face dying alone. Meanwhile, her twelve-year-old granddaughter Emily watches everything with careful eyes, bearing witness to truths the adults refuse to see.
KEPT is a haunting Southern Gothic tale about the cost of appearances, the violence of erosion, and what happens when the life you've built becomes the cage you die in.
Content Warning: This novel contains depictions of domestic abuse, elder abuse, progressive illness (Corticobasal Degeneration), and themes of coercive control.
