The Ghost Detention

When the Callahans adopted six-year-old Lucia from the Saint Ignacio Home for Displaced Children, they believed they were rescuing a war orphan. Twelve years later, their perfect daughter begins to unravel—revealing a cold, calculating void beneath her charm. As her mask slips, a forgotten class-action lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security resurfaces online, its digital memory twisting the truth: Was Lucia a victim of a cruel immigration system, or was the system the only thing that ever contained her? Set in the fictional Atlantic Republic, this psychological suspense thriller explores the weaponization of internet memory and the terrifying possibility that some children are not broken by trauma—but born without conscience.