Hidden Jewel

by V.C. Andrews

**Pearl hopes for happiness, but destiny is drawing her deep into the shadows of her family's tainted past....** Raised in a New Orleans mansion filled with kindness and laughter, Pearl Andreas dreams of going to college and becoming a doctor. With all the finest families wishing her well, her high school graduation party is almost as festive as Mardi Gras itself. But even a famous jazz back's beat cannot drive away her fear that she will never know the magic of romantic passion, or the truth of her family's buried secrets. Yet her summer job as a nurse's aide in an elegant old hospital is as fascinating as she hoped it would be... and an experienced intern is eager to share his friendship with her. But the sultry Louisiana heat cannot dispel her family's sinful legacy, or the cruel accident that befalls one of Pearl's twin brothers. Then the bayou that caught him in its spell beckons to her mother, Ruby, who flees, tormented, back to her Cajun roots. With Pearl's other brother deathly