The Right Thing
1887
In a secluded cabin surrounded by darkness, a young woman named Beth faces an impossible choice. Her injured lover, Tom, has arrived at her doorstep fleeing something he won't explain, while her abusive stepfather roams the woods nearby. Beth has built her life on a simple creed inherited from her deceased mother: do the right thing, no matter the cost. But when her stepfather is found dead and Tom becomes the prime suspect, that creed is tested to its breaking point. The man she loves may be a murderer. The system that should deliver justice is controlled by men who would hang him without a trial. Beth must decide whether her rigid moral code survives contact with her own heart, and whether protecting someone she loves is itself a form of doing the right thing. This is a stark, quietly devastating story about the gap between principle and passion, and the terrible clarity that comes when loyalty and morality collide.
