First published 2026
A decade after Missy's murder, Mackenzie Allen Phillips has not escaped grief. It lives in his marriage to Nan, who holds her own buried pain, and in the faith he still struggles to trust. Then, on what would have been Missy's sixteenth birthday, Mack receives a request no father should have to consider: go to death row and sit across from the man who abducted and killed her. Inside that prison, Mack does not find a monster he can dismiss. He finds a broken human being, and that is harder to carry than hatred. His own anger, doubt, and silence from God press in alongside him in that cell. Nan moves through her own separate suffering at home, and the distance between two people who love each other can be as wide as any locked door. Wm. Paul Young builds his sequel around the question of whether forgiveness is even possible when the wound never closes. The answer, when it comes, costs everything.
Genres: drama, literary-fiction, christian-fiction, contemporary, adult, adult-fiction
Vibes: dark, emotionally-intense, introspective, redemptive, thought-provoking
Tropes: emotional-journey, redemption-arc, second-chance
Setting: Prison
272 pages · Hardcover · Apiary
Content warnings: child-death, death, murder