Credence by Penelope Douglas

Tiernan de Haas has spent her entire life living in the shadow of fame. As the only child of a high-profile film‐producer father and starlet mother, she grew up with wealth and privilege—but not with love or guidance. Shippped off to boarding schools from a young age, she has always felt isolated, unseen.

Then suddenly her parents die—together. A double blow of abandonment and loss. The moment their deaths go public, the world expects her to grieve, to fall apart—but she finds she’s numb. Because she’s always been alone, hasn’t she?

Into her life enters Jake Van der Berg: the father’s step‐brother, estranged, whom she has never known. He becomes her guardian (she is still two months shy of her eighteenth birthday). He invites Tiernan to live with him and his two sons, Noah and Kaleb, in the remote mountains of Colorado.

In the rugged, isolated wilderness—snowbound for months, far from the glitz and expectations of Los Angeles—Tiernan confronts a life she never asked for. She must learn to work: chores, survival, meaningful connection. Under the guidance of Jake and his sons, she begins to shed the armoured shell of her old life. Yet as she begins to find a place to belong, she also realizes the rules that bind them are looser when the world outside isn’t watching.

And then the boundaries shift. Because in this house, among these men who hold power over her life, secrets of desire, belonging, and control begin to surface. One of them “has her.” One of them “wants her.” But the third… he’s going to keep her