Because You Loved Me

A teenage girl plots her mother’s murder with a deranged online lover in this true-crime classic by the New York Times bestselling true crime author.   Jeanne Dominico was a hard-working single mother. Nicole, her fourteen-year-old daughter, was on the honor roll—and head over heels in love with an older boy she’d met through the Internet. Once the lovers met in person, Jeanne sensed trouble. If only she’d known that the life in danger was her own.   With a history of psychological trouble and family misfortune, Billy Sullivan demanded obsessive and controlling power over Nicole. The twisted Romeo and Juliet responded to Jeanne’s motherly concern with brutal fury—her fiancé discovered Jeanne’s beaten, barely recognizable body on the kitchen floor. Nicole’s stunning confession and guilty plea led to Billy’s sensational trial, where a sordid tale of love, loss, betrayal, and murder finally took a cold-blooded killer offline—and behind bars.   Includes sixteen pages of shocking photos   “Phelps is one of America’s finest true-crime authors.” —Vincent Bugliosi   “Phelps is the Harlan Coben of real-life thrillers.” —Allison Brennan