The ten-year-old daughter of a Sicilian Mafia boss is cruelly kidnapped from her bedroom on the night of her glorious birthday celebration. She knows her captor well, and, until this night, has trusted him and held him fondly in her heart. Maria's prospects for rescue plummet as she is sold into child prostitution and eventually sent to a Holocaust death camp. Is it possible for a girl so misused for so long to emotionally endure the torment she suffered and still maintain a semblance of normalcy? The quest for an answer leads the reader on a zigzag journey through the bloodline of three generations, ending in the bowels of a Mafia mansion on the island of Sicily. In this book, you will experience the profound love of a daughter for her mother, and a granddaughter's misgivings about her crazed grandmother, the matriarch of a battered family: - Brianna, a successful law student who gives up everything to search for her beloved mother. - Lynette, Brianna's mother, a survivor of child-slavery in South Africa. - Maria, a kidnapped child who endures years of torment to eventually become the most powerful Mafia boss in Sicily. Lucia Mann's story explores the ugliness of child-slavery while it tests our attitudes toward revenge and mental health. About the Author Lucia Mann, humanitarian and activist, was born in British colonial South Africa in the wake of World War II. She now resides in British Columbia, Canada. After retiring from freelance journalism in 1998, she wrote a four book African series to give voice to those who have suffered and are suffering brutalities and captivity. The other books in the series are: "Rented Silence," CBC Book Award; "Africa's Unfinished Symphony," Indie Excellence Award; and "A Veil of Blood Hangs over Africa." Visit www.LuciaMann.com and www.ReportModernDaySlavery.org for more information on how you can help alleviate the scourge of modern-day slavery.

A fiery explosion in the sulfur mine kills his father leaving 5 year old Aspanu head of his family. -His mother struggles as she is faced with signing his life away as an indentured servant, saying he will now work in the 100+ degree mines to pay off their debt. -When the townspeople see no real change in their working conditions regarding their safety, and the people are fed up with unfair labor practices, they hold clandestine meetings to stage a massive riot in the square. -Civil unrest boils and comes to a head. Impending, dangerous backlash looms when the mine owners find out. -Aspanu's mother's 'connections' warn her to not be in the square when the riot takes place, and she in turn tells her son, but he doesn't listen. -Screams, dark clouds of explosives, thunderous noise, and dead bodies line the streets. One of the bodies is someone who Aspanu loved dearly. -Emmigrating to America, he tries to forget his heart-breaking past and make a new life for himself. -He learns a lot about the values we all hold dear, and where the church, the mafia, and freinds and family fit in to that picture.