No Place Like Home

Liza Barclay, aged 10, shot her mother while trying to protect her from her violent stepfather, ex-FBI agent Charley Foster. Despite his claim that it was deliberate, the Juvenile Court ruled the death an accident. Many people, however, agreed with Foster, and tabloids compared Liza to the infamous murderess Lizzie Borden, pointing to the similarity in name. Growing up with adoptive parents who tried to erase every trace of her past, her name was changed to Celia. Always, though, the fear hung over her and the family—that someday her vengeful stepfather would reappear to harm her. At 25, a successful interior designer, she marries a childless, sixty-year-old widower and they have a son. Before their marriage she confided her earlier life to him. Two years later, on his deathbed, he tells her he would want her to remarry, but makes her swear never to reveal her past to anyone so that their son will not carry the burden of this family tragedy—a promise that plunges her into a new cycle of violence. Three years later, happily remarried, Celia is shocked when her second husband presents her with a gift—the house where she killed her mother. When the real estate agent who made the sale recognises her and is soon after murdered, Celia is accused of the crime. Once again she is home—the place where she is stamped as a murderess.