{"product_id":"the-heart-doesnt-ask-9781088196663","title":"The Heart Doesn't Ask","description":"\u003cp\u003eCash Ratliff has loved three different women for three different reasons. Cash's alcohol habit didn't mix well with Julie. Scarred by a fragmented childhood, a reckless youth spent in and out of trouble, and a tour in the Marine Corps, Cash has become a man shaped more by shadows than by light. Now confined within the walls of Angola State Prison-a place whispered about even among the hardened-Cash wears the label of felon like a second skin and his past is sealed behind bars and secrets.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAgainst expectation, the court grants him a sliver of freedom: while still incarcerated but within a work release center, he is granted outside employment with Sophia Blessing, a reclusive widow whose quiet life belies a discerning spirit. Something about the old woman both unsettles and steadies Cash at the same time. She peers beyond his rough edges, offering not pity but a kind of truth he's never encountered-a truth wrapped not in judgment, but in something eerily close to grace.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEverything shifts with the arrival of Abigail-Sophia's granddaughter, luminous and out of reach, betrothed to a man whose charm masks something far darker. As tragedy coils through their lives like smoke, Cash is thrust into unfamiliar depths. A question begins to haunt him: when fate offers a final fork in the road, can a man outrun the pull of his own past? Or is redemption always a step too far?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Michael Slayter","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51735732617490,"sku":"9781088196663","price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_776a18c2-e05c-49f8-8b68-c3e18130fe8d.jpg?v=1763543167","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-heart-doesnt-ask-9781088196663","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}