The Thing That Happened When We Were Little

16 years after surviving a childhood abduction, three women struggle with whether they should keep the dangerous secret of how they survived from their image-obsessed town or unleash it on the predators of their adult life.

Welcome to Moss Groves, the home of Scared.

Ida Montgomery was always different. Being different isn't ideal in a small college town like Moss Groves, especially not in a family as wealthy and prominent as Ida's. So, when Ida was nine, her Mom found Ella and Susan-Eva, two other little girls who could teach Ida how to act normal in public. It worked... until the three girls got abducted by a serial killer. They survived, but the real story of how is one they agreed never to tell.

Sixteen years later, the three still live together in one of the Montgomery's historic mansions. They seem fine. Ida is engaged, Ella works at the university, and Susan-Eva is getting her PhD. Sure, Ella's boyfriend is kind of a jerk, and for reasons no one understands, Susan-Eva broke up with the love of her life, but Ida's life seems perfect.

No one would guess that one of them was assaulted a few months ago, one of them committed a felony, or that one of them is dying and on top of all that, there are rumors a copycat killer is on the loose. Secrets surface, love triangles abound, and things get bloody in the first book of the SCARED trilogy.