As always, I owe a thousand thank-yous to my sensational agent, Shannon Hassan, and my brilliant editor, Carolyn Williams, who prompted me to investigate Gilded Age stories and served as a beacon throughout the creation of this novel. Thank you to the rest of my wonderful team at Doubleday, including Laura Baratto, Jess Deitcher, Kathleen Fridella, Sara Hayet, Anna B. Knighton, Felecia O’Connell, Denise Stambaugh, and Johanna Zwirner. Thank you, and kudos, to Oliver Munday for designing this book’s gorgeous cover.
Three women in Minneapolis helped tremendously to make this book as accurate as it could be. Thank you to Penny Petersen and Tamatha Perlman for your insights on the Bethany Home and the lives of women in turn-of-the-century Minnesota; and thank you to Michele Pollard at the Hennepin History Museum for allowing me access to the archive and sharing everything from Hayward trial transcripts to the architect’s blueprints of the Bethany Home.
Thank you to my friends and beta readers, Kathleen Carr Foster and Madeline Kotowicz, for reading early drafts of this novel and making the perfect suggestions.
Thank you to my dear parents: Susan and Barry, Jim and Jane, and Jim and Julie, all such devoted champions of my writing; and my beloved siblings, Stephanie, Michael, Kyle, and Cory.
Thank you, as Abby might say, to my favorites: Camille, Clare, and Colin. I love you.
This book is for survivors of human trafficking and exploitation everywhere; may we listen to them as they tell their stories. May we say their names.