Lightning Strikes (Hudson Series #2)

Torn from the embrace of her poor but loving family, Rain Arnold now lives surrounded by opulent riches but feels more like an outsider than ever before. Her heart's true passion—the theatre—may prove to be her salvation, as she embarks on a journey to unmask a legacy of long-buried family secrets.

Enrolled in one of England's most prestigious drama schools, Rain is sent to London to live with her great-aunt, Lenora, of the renowned Endfield family. Their estate is breathtakingly austere, filled with antiques and a long, storied history. But something isn't right. Rain hears footsteps at night, and the high-pitched laughter of a little girl. She sees strange lights in rooms that are supposed to be closed off. And everything about the place—the air, the silence, even the somber household staff—is as cold and soulless as a museum. Behind the icy sheen of wealth and privilege lies something unpseakable. Something that could turn Rain's most precious dreams into an inescapable nightmare...

"The face of fear I display in my novels is not the pale specter from the sunken grave, nor is it the thing that goes bump in the night," V. C. Andrews once told Douglas E. Winter. "Mine are the deep-seated fears established when we are children, and they never quite go away: the fear of being helpless, the fear of being trapped, the fear of being out of control."