{"product_id":"the-seconds-she-stole-amy-wertz-9798258604484","title":"The Seconds She Stole: The Hand of Glory and what's in the Space Without Time","description":"\u003cp\u003eMichelle Halstead has spent her life learning how to survive systems she could not control.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom foster homes to adulthood, she mastered the quiet skills: observation, restraint, and knowing exactly when to act-and when not to. Control was never given. It was taken, carefully, in small, invisible ways.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut when her husband Dean is diagnosed with cancer, control becomes something else entirely.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTime runs differently now. Every appointment, every bill, every moment measured against what they don't have enough of. Michelle does what she has always done-she studies the system, runs the numbers, and looks for the gap.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eShe finds it in something she has carried since childhood.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA preserved hand, hidden in a shoebox.\u003cbr\u003eA relic she never questioned.\u003cbr\u003eAn object that should not work-but does.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen lit, the hand doesn't stop time.\u003cbr\u003eIt removes her from it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe world freezes. Sound vanishes. Motion halts mid-breath. And within that perfect stillness, Michelle can move freely-unseen, untouched, beyond consequence.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAt first, it's a solution.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA way to take what she needs.\u003cbr\u003eA way to keep Dean alive.\u003cbr\u003eA way to finally win.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut the stillness is not empty.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSomething exists there-in the corners, in the angles where space folds tighter than it should. Something that does not move because it has no need to. Something that has been waiting.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAnd with every use, Michelle stays a little longer.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWatches a little closer.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIs seen more clearly in return.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs reality begins to shift-timestamps changing, instructions arriving before she asks, a guiding presence that knows more than it should-Michelle realizes the truth too late: \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eShe is not the first to use the hand.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOthers have tried.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNone have stopped.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAnd whatever lives in the stillness isn't hunting her.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt's learning her.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNow, with Dean's life hanging in the balance and the system tightening around her, Michelle faces an impossible question: \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHow much time can you steal...\u003cbr\u003ebefore something takes you out of it completely?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Seconds She Stole\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eis a literary horror novel about control, consequence, and the terrifying possibility that the world doesn't stop for you-you simply step outside of it, into something that has always been there, waiting.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Amy Wertz\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9798258604484\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Independently Published\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 04\/23\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 182\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.55lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.39d","brand":"Amy Wertz","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":49172932624639,"sku":"9798258604484","price":15.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-seconds-she-stole-amy-wertz-9798258604484","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}