Sandra Stump

Through the Trees of Winter Sandra Stump

Everyone is haunted by something, a place, an event, or their past... for some its all three. Thousand Oaks was once an enchanted, beautifully crafted home, which sat on many acres with a vast forest of one thousand oak tree's. The forest itself was well known for a great legend and mystery that was well told through the generations. Why would the Winter family who proudly built and owned the property just leave it to decay over the years? It seemed as if Thousand Oaks had been forgotten by time and man alike. When the legendary property is finally sold to the Anderson family it's the last place on earth Maddie Anderson would ever want to live. She simply wants her old life back and the normalcy she was once accustomed to. Despite her father's promises to restore the once famous home, in Maddie's resentful opinion the home is as broken down and beyond repair as her family. Maddie suffers from anxiety and has a million and one anxious thoughts running rampant through her teenage mind. As things start to spiral more and more out of control she feels like she's going crazy and no one understands her pain. Soon after moving into the crumbling mansion she uncovers two terrible secrets. One regarding her family and one involving the previous owners, both undisclosed truth's would ruin her already fragile world if ever brought to light. Through it all Maddie embarks on an incredible and sometimes frienthing journey to uncover the horrible secret that was hidden long ago, while working through her own painful reality. She boldly and sometimes hysterically, faces the burden of the painful truth so her family and those she love's won't be destroyed. Why was she chosen for this profound burden? Will the pain and truth consume her already broken family, or will Maddie work through it and resolve things on her own? Can she let go of the complex secrets and focus on her own fragile mental health, or will she finally give into the madding thoughts and ruin everyone's life and her own? Either way, she will forever be haunted by the past and the call of winter only she can hear, through the tree's of winter.