Ember Brannon swore she'd never come back.

Years after fleeing the mansion where her mother died and her family fell apart, Ember returns without a plan. Without answers. Not for the town that still whispers about the Brannons. Not even for herself. She just needed somewhere to disappear.

But the house isn't empty.

A doll appears where she didn't leave it. A woman from an old family portrait starts showing up in her dreams. And at night, something moves just beyond the tree line. Watching, waiting.

Ember isn't the only one tangled in it. Her cousin Ryker, steady and protective, has been keeping watch from the cottage out back, but he's hiding something. Luke, the man she left behind, is back in her life with secrets of his own. And Skeet, the town's golden man, smiles a little too wide whenever he says how much he'd love to see her gone.

The deeper Ember digs, the clearer it becomes—something was buried on that property.

And someone already dug it up.

Ember came home to escape the past.

Now it's coming for her.

The First Mistake ​​​​​​​is the tenth standalone in the Brannon House series, an exciting and hair-raising domestic thriller saga by USA Today bestselling author Stacy Claflin. To get the most enjoyment from the series, the books are best read in order, however you can read any of them on their own.

The Complete series:

The Perfect Death

Family Secrets

The Darkest Garden

Shattered Pieces

Grave Memories

Drowning Silence

Sleepwalker

Face Off

Lost Echoes

The First Mistake

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The Watcher

Her Last Breath

Secrets We Hide

No Safe Place

Recluse Island

The Hotel's Secret

The Father's Secret

The Corpse's Secret

Standalones

All Of It Was True

Don't Trust Her

Lies Never Sleep