Excerpt from Only the Beautiful by Susan Meissner, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

Mrs. Grissom slows and turns onto a sloping driveway. I see a high fence surrounding a multistory brick building with white trim and flanked by lawns just starting to come back to life after the winter. It looks like a school or college. On either side of the gated entry are two oak trees with limbs that reach well over the top of the fence. A sign etched in stone on the outside of the gate reads sonoma state home for the infirm. Below that in smaller letters are the words: caring for the mentally encumbered, the epileptic, the physically disabled, and the psychopathic delinquent.

A cold burst of alarm surges in my chest. "Is this where we're going?"

"It is." Mrs. Grissom doesn't look my way as she stops in front of the closed gate. An attendant emerges from a small gatehouse.

"This can't be right, Mrs. Grissom. Didn't you see the sign? This is some kind of hospital for . . . for sick people."

The smiling attendant comes around to the driver's side and Mrs. Grissom rolls down her window.

"Eunice Grissom with County Human Services. This is Rosanne Maras."

"Mrs. Grissom!" I shout. "This isn't the right place. I'm not sick. I'm not . . . infirm."

Mrs. Grissom tightens her grip on the steering wheel and says nothing.

"You can drive on up," the attendant says. "They're expecting her."

Expecting me? Expecting me?

"No, wait!" I call out to him. But the attendant is opening the gate wide so that the car can pull through. I turn to Mrs. Grissom. "I am not staying at this place!"

She begins to drive slowly forward. "You need to trust the people who have been charged with your care and well-­being, Rosanne."

Excerpted from Only the Beautiful by Susan Meissner. Copyright © 2023 by Susan Meissner. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.