Secrets Beneath the Cottonwoods

In the midst of a war that has torn families and loyalties apart, seventeen-year-old Annabelle finds herself facing battles of her own. With her father away fighting for the Confederacy, she steps up to help her mother and younger siblings run their struggling plantation, all while grappling with the ever-present fear that life as she knows it may soon crumble. One fateful day, she stumbles upon a wounded Union soldier, Eli, barely clinging to life. Despite everything she's been told about the enemy, her heart won't let her turn away. Hiding him in the barn, she and her family nurse him back to health, forging an unlikely bond. As the days pass, her guarded heart begins to soften, and she soon finds herself questioning everything she once believed. But in a world divided by war, love can be just as dangerous as the battlefield. When secrets become impossible to keep, Annabelle must choose between the life she's always known and the one her heart longs for. Will she risk everything for a love that defies the war raging outside, or will duty and need to protect her family force her to abandon the one person who truly sees her for who she is?