The Weight of Forgiveness

"This emotionally layered novel explores the generational weight of secrets, identity, and forgiveness. Mia's journey to uncover her roots and heal familial wounds is compelling, and the intergenerational storyline adds depth." - Vanessa Riley, award-winning author of Fire Sword and Sea

***2025 James River Writers Best Self-published Novel: Awarded Runner Up
***2025 Next Generation Indie Book Award: Finalist in African American Fiction & First Novel (40,000-70,000 words)


Mia has built her career preserving history-but she has never known her own. That changes the day she learns that her father-the man she believed had died before she was born-has just passed away.

The revelation exposes a lifetime of secrets her mother kept hidden and sends Mia to Virginia to find the family she was never allowed to know. There, she meets her formidable grandmother, Sarah-a woman as guarded as she is captivating. Just as Mia begins to build the relationship she has always longed for, Sarah's failing health and fading memory threaten to steal their fragile reunion before it can truly begin.

As Sarah reveals long-buried stories, her unflinching honesty forces Mia to confront her identity and the cost of withholding forgiveness. Through their intimate conversations, Mia learns that Sarah has long safeguarded the extraordinary testimony of Lucinda, a formerly enslaved woman who entrusted her harrowing life story to her decades earlier. But as Sarah's memory fades, so does the fragile thread linking past and present.

Determined not to let history vanish, Mia must piece together fragments of truth and confront generations of silence that could redefine everything she thought she knew-before time runs out.