"She walked out of the towers on 9/11—and into a life she was never meant to live."

From the author of The Essence of Shade comes Deborah Jean Miller's Escaping Pretense—a gripping tale of deception, survival, and unexpected redemption. At its center is a woman who has perfected the art of manipulation—unlovable, calculating, and dangerously adept at bending others to her will. When her schemes of embezzlement threaten to unravel, fate intervenes in the most unimaginable way: she walks out of the burning towers on 9/11 and vanishes into the chaos.

With the world believing she perished that day, she seizes the chance to become someone new. Far from New York, in a foreign land, she struggles to reconcile her past sins with the fragile life she has built. As layers of her hardened exterior begin to crack, compassion—once foreign to her nature—quietly takes root, forcing her to face questions she has long buried: Can a heart trained in deception learn to love? And is true forgiveness ever possible for a soul steeped in betrayal?

Suspenseful, thought-provoking, and ultimately moving, Escaping Pretense is a story of reinvention born from tragedy—a novel that will captivate readers who love women's fiction layered with intrigue, moral complexity, and the haunting search for grace.

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