Cradle For The Unlived

By Cylis Venner

Some reflections don't show who you are. They show who you destroyed.

After a bitter divorce, Elise Morretin returns to her late grandmother's house in Marquette, Michigan-a place she swore she'd never see again. The house is filled with carefully buried memories, but none more dangerous than the antique Hamalainen mirror hanging in the upstairs bathroom.

Twenty years ago, Elise's infant daughter Carleigh died. The official story: sudden infant death syndrome. The truth: a secret so devastating that Elise has spent two decades running from it.

Now, her reflection is watching her. Moving independently. Learning.

What Elise mistakes for a psychological breakdown is something far more terrifying-a generational curse that has claimed five Hamalainen women before her. The entity in the mirror isn't a ghost. It's Carleigh herself, the woman she should have become, nurtured for twenty years on Elise's guilt and denial. And she's ready to step through the glass and claim the life that was stolen from her.

As supernatural manifestations escalate and the boundary between reflection and reality shatters, Elise faces an impossible choice: fight for her existence against her own daughter, or surrender everything so Carleigh can finally live.

In a house where every surface reflects lives that should have been, some debts can only be paid with your soul.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0GJKWY3D7
• ISBN13: 9798233003288
• Release Date: January 2026
• Publisher: Rift & Quill Press
• Length: 260 Pages
• Weight: 0.67 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.5"