When Megan Palmer gets a call on the morning of her 27th birthday, the last thing she expected to hear was that her estranged father had committed suicide. The circumstances surrounding his death are strange, to say the least. But nothing is stranger than the text he sent to her while she was asleep. His cryptic message just may be the key that unlocks everything, if Megan can figure out what it means.

Megan's mom and brother think she's in denial, unable to process her father's sudden death. Megan's grandmother seems oddly unshaken by her son's departure. Megan's stepmom is hiding something from her.

With the help of her lifelong friends, Megan dives headfirst into an investigation of her father's death that proves darker and more dangerous than she ever imagined. Her reckless obsession with discovering the truth threatens to rip the trio apart as she pursues her father's secrets. In the end, Megan is alone, fighting to reconcile the father she once knew with the man everything else is telling her he'd become.

Everyone is a suspect. But Megan won't stop until she uncovers the truth. What happened to Mark Palmer?

HOW IT HAD TO BE is a domestic suspense thriller by debut author, Marissa Vanskike.