The Mulberry Tree

He needed me

For nearly twenty years, those three words dictated the life of Lillian Manville. Quiet, unassuming, and overweight, Lillian did anything to please her husband, the self-made billionaire James Manville. Since the age of seventeen, she had obeyed this powerful older man's every command and in return she received a life beyond her wildest dreams. Elaborate mansions. Trips around the world. The finest jewels and the most luxurious fashions.

But when Jimmie dies suddenly in a plane crash, Lillian's pampered life comes to an abrupt halt. She learns that Jimmie has bequeathed all of his riches to his devious siblings, Atlanta and Ray, except an old farmhouse in small-town Calburn, Virginia. Lillian soon discovers a well of secrets that connect to a long-ago tragedy concerning a group of boys hailed as the "Golden Six."

Lillian's unexpected circumstances quickly transform her. She loses weight, and, with the help of Matthew Longacre, a kind, handsome local man, renovates the farmhouse and develops her own thriving business. Although Lillian's new life seems as strong as the mulberry tree firmly planted outside her farmhouse, there remain secrets that threaten to uproot the past she cherished and the future she will fight to protect.