The Life She Wants

Emma Shay Compton's life in New York ends when her husband, the financier Richard Compton, takes his own life. He had stolen his clients' savings to pay for the lavish way they lived. Emma never worked in the business, yet she is the one left to carry the blame, and she has nothing.

She returns to Sonoma County, the home she left planning never to come back. Starting over there is hard. The town is full of painful memories and of people she would rather avoid, most of all Riley Kerrigan.

Riley and Emma were once as close as sisters, until Riley betrayed her and the friendship ended. Now Emma is trying to support herself, but her husband's name follows her everywhere. She is forced to ask for help from the last person she wanted to ask.

This is contemporary women's fiction about a damaged friendship. The reunion between the two women is uneasy, and each has to face her own mistakes from the years apart. The focus stays on Emma's fresh start, her old hurts and the question of whether two former best friends can repair what broke between them.