Once Upon a Lie

Mia Strauss is trying to be a good mother. She’s worked hard to build a stable life since losing her memory at eighteen when the assailant, who shot and killed her famous father, pushed her from the third-story landing of their gold coast mansion. But lately, Mia is losing control and feels she’s being watched wherever she goes. The eyes…they are everywhere. She is trying to keep herself together and is taking more and more of her prescription drugs to quiet the rising panic and anxiety. But when her husband, Alexander, comes home to find her face down on their living room floor, she’ll need to make some drastic changes, or risk losing her girls.

Alexander Strauss, neuropsychologist and professor at Columbia University, can no longer trust his wife. Her behavior and moods have grown evermore erratic since the birth of their twin girls six years ago. She has lost too much weight, covers herself from head to toe in only black clothing, and has removed every mirror from their home. She has a cadre of doctors that supply plenty of medications but don’t help her make any progress. She has become a danger to herself, and their children. It has long been believed that Mia will never be able to remember her life prior to the assault, but Alexander has other ideas. Based on her recent brain images, and the things she says in her sleep, Alexander is confident Mia’s continued amnesia is purely psychological. Whatever the reason, she doesn’t want to remember. He gives her an ultimatum, either she gets real help, or he’ll leave her and take the girls.

Desperate to save her marriage and keep her family intact, Mia signs up for one of the few therapies she’s never tried before—an experimental treatment that hypothesizes psilocybin may help traumatized patients process and recover their forgotten lives. But as Mia makes progress and her history begins to take shape, it becomes apparent that those closest to Mia never want her to remember what happened that night.

And they’ll do whatever it takes to stop the truth from being uncovered.