Is Harlan Coben'S Shelter Based On A True Story?

Ten years after my wealthy family took me back, I died in the rental house my billionaire parents had dumped me in. My son was three. Just to mess with me, the kidnapper gave me three chances to call for help. If even one person was willing to come see me, he'd spare my child. The first call was to my father, the man who'd spent fifteen years searching for me. He was busy directing the staff as they set up my adoptive sister's birthday party. When he picked up, he barked, "Estelle Emerson, seriously? Can you go one week without causing a scene? It's your sister's birthday. I'm busy. Don't kill the vibe." The second call was to my mother, the woman who brought me home and changed my name from Dixie to Estelle. But Vera snatched the phone and laughed so hard she could barely get the words out. "Estelle, seriously? If you're gonna make something up, at least make it believable. You look so broke you probably don't even have fifty bucks. What kidnapper would pick you?" The third time, I called Luca's father, my legal husband. He said he was in a meeting and didn't have time to play games with me. He also said that if I behaved myself, he'd agree to take me home for dinner next week. After the final call ended, I looked at the grinning kidnapper in despair and sent the last two messages of my life. A photo of myself covered in blood. And a short message, every word sincere. [I'm really going to die. In my next life, don't bring me home.]

The night I was kidnapped, I made one last phone call to my dad, police captain Marcus Harper. "Dad, save me!" "Grace, even your jealous tantrums should have better timing." On the other end of the line, he was celebrating his adopted daughter's birthday. His voice dripped with impatience. "Today is Annie's eighteenth birthday. Pushing her down the stairs wasn't enough for you? Now you have to lie and make a scene too?" I cried and told him I hadn't done it. All I got in return was a dismissive chuckle. "Grace, either come home right now and apologize to Annie, or don't ever come back." I never made it back. Three months later, a girl's body was unearthed at an abandoned slaughterhouse on the edge of the city. Dad led the team to the scene. He pulled back the blue tarp covering the body and saw the red cord around my wristbone, the one with "Stay Safe" engraved on its silver tag. The man who had saved countless missing children finally lost his mind.

He broke down my door at 9:47 on a Tuesday to kill my husband. He wasn’t supposed to find me. I should have been afraid of the most wanted man in the state. Instead I asked him for something no woman had ever asked him for. Then I drove north. I thought I was free. Content Warning Domestic Violence, intimate partner abuse, violence, morally-grey anti hero, love interest, stalking, explicit sexual content

My father's adopted daughter was only locked in the cramped storage closet for around fifteen minutes, yet he punished me by tying me up and throwing me inside. He even sealed off the ventilation with towels. "As Wendy's older sister, if you can't take care of her, then you should also experience how scared she was," he declared coldly. He knew I was claustrophobic, but my desperate pleas for mercy, my terror, were met with nothing but heartless reprimands. "Let this be a lesson on how to be a good sister." As the last sliver of light disappeared, swallowed by the oppressive darkness, I struggled helplessly. A week passed before my father finally remembered my existence and decided it was time to end my punishment. "Let's hope this week served as a good lesson for you, Jennifer. If this happens again, you will no longer be allowed in this house." He would never know that I had already taken my last breath in that suffocating room. My body had begun to rot in the darkness.

Dove Wallace saw the Mafia King kill a man, and that night changed everything for her. Elio Visconti doesn't keep witnesses alive. And yet, he keeps this one. Ninety days. Ten million dollars. Her silence, bought and bound. He swears he'll never take what isn't freely given, and she swears that she's a girl he can't buy. But somehow, she ends up being the girl who doesn't leave. Even when the doors are open. She stays. In Love's Darkest Cage. Some prisons are ones you never want to escape.

My life changed the night someone tried to kidnap me. As the only daughter of billionaire Victor Sterling, I’ve spent my whole life trapped behind wealth, security, and impossible expectations. After the attack, my father hires Ethan Knight a cold, mysterious former Special Forces soldier to become my bodyguard. We clash from the moment we meet. He’s infuriatingly overprotective, impossible to read, and determined to keep me at a distance. Then he takes a bullet meant for me. Behind Ethan’s icy mask lies a dangerous secret one that could destroy everything I thought I knew about my family… and his. Falling in love with my bodyguard was never part of the plan. But the people hunting me aren’t the only threat. The man sworn to protect me may also be the one destined to break my heart.