
Abandoned & alone you'll do anything to survive! A gritty saga from the bestselling author Kitty Neale. Abandoned on the cold stone steps of an orphanage only a few hours old & clutching the object which was to give her name Pearl Button had a hard start to life. Now 16 years old she's finally managed to escape the cruel confines of the orphanage & enter the real world. Finding work at a nearby cafe Pearl is thrilled to start earning her own money even if she must contend with sharp-tongued Dolly Dolby. But soon she becomes tangled up in the murky South London underworld in which Dolly's son -- the cruel but handsome Kevin -- operates. By chance she sees something she shouldn't something dangerous & her life is thrown into jeopardy. Can gentle giant Derek Lewis protect vulnerable Pearl from Kevin -- & her own heart? Meanwhile a local boy is snatched terrifying this close-knit community & at the orphanage where Pearl lived out her wretched childhood the past is coming back to haunt its owner -- & the secret she has promised to guard for so many years!