Secrets in the County: When the Pursuit of Justice Became a Quest for Survival

Discover the incredible true story of Anita, a woman whose self-initiated divorce after years of disrespect and betrayal became a literal fight for her life and rights.

For readers of true crime, women's biographies, survival stories, and divorce memoirs, Secrets in the County unveils Anita's harrowing experience with the abuse of power-and serves as a warning to women everywhere about what can happen when those closest to them wield control as a weapon.

At one time, Anita's life felt idyllic. Or at least, she convinced herself it was. She was the perfect wife: dinner ready at 4:30, a clean house, and a son taken care of. However, cracks can't hide for long, and the fissures in Anita and Nick's relationship became canyons without much effort.

The first season of change came through the arrival of new neighbors and Nick's closeness with the wife. When "harmless flirtation" morphed into an uncharacteristic shift in Nick's personality, the foundation of Anita and Nick's marriage began to erode.

Later, the topic of money became a marriage-ending ordeal. Anita walked into the garage they had built into a business together to hear Nick say that he had removed her name from the checkbook, all in the name of "teaching her a lesson" and "showing her who's in control."

With these and dozens of other examples of emotional and verbal abuse, Anita hit her breaking point and initiated a divorce-hoping to end her misery quickly. However, Nick and his "connections" in the county had other intentions.

In this memoir, Anita shares her incredible journey-the details of her struggle to get what was rightfully hers, the people who were supposed to help (but transformed into her obstacles), and a confusing maze of deceit-that she is still trying to make sense of and took years to escape from.