Darkest Hour (Cutler)

Lillian's world is full of grand parties, of sunshine and promises, but her spirits are crushed the day that her Bible-spouting sister Emily reveals the secret of Lillian's birth, a secret Mama sadly cannot deny. Still, Lillian refuses to believe Emily's hateful claim that she is evil, a curse...but when tragedy befalls those around her she begins to believe the grim reality. Her heart is torn anew when Papa subjects her to the most brutal degradation in a drunken haze. Then Papa loses "The Meadows" in a card game and the arrogant, handsome playboy Bill Cutler will only return the plantation if Lillian marries him. She must leave her girlhood home behind, and make a bold new beginning as the mistress of a hotel called Cutler's Cove.