Buried secrets, environmental disaster, and a legacy of corruption hit too close to home when a California native and her family make a fresh start in small-town Texas-and find trouble just beneath the promising surface in this powerful novel for readers of Terry McMillan, Tracy Brown, ReShonda Tate, and Elsie Bryant.
As director of an award-winning investigative news radio show, Billie Jordan is used to dealing with trouble. But when the radio station is sold, she's suddenly jobless and in need of money to help her son recover from an accident-related opioid addiction. When her husband gets a professorship at an HBCU in his hometown, Billie makes the best of their move South. All seems well-until severe storms cause massive destruction and contaminate the town's water supply-making it unsafe to drink.
With some digging, Billie learns that the water issues are on-going. But soon, the old guard accuses her of sticking her nose where it doesn't belong-and it doesn't seem like a coincidence when she starts losing job opportunities. When she tries to expose the crisis in the local newspaper, even HBCU administrators-including her husband-quash her efforts. Undeterred, Billie discovers a shocking
cover-up: millions of dollars intended to solve the problem have disappeared or been redirected. Worse, her sister-in-law is on the water commission . . .
Billie is fast learning that decades-old connections between money, power, and family, flow deeper and darker in this town than any underground system. With her son's health and her marriage at stake she'll need all her resources and skills to save them and bring down the corruption . . . if a conspiracy doesn't drown her first.
