Dear Reader: A Letter from Author Cheryl Diamond

Dear Reader,

What if the idea of your birth was conceived in a Panamanian jail, brought into reality on a
transcontinental money-laundering run through the Amazon jungle, and registered under false
passports by an underworld fixer? What if you were born a ghost, untraceable, with Interpol
hunting you from your very first breath?

This is the true story of an epic thirty-year escape from the most powerful international law
enforcement agencies, and how I was born right into it.

But ultimately, despite all the countries, forged passports, and midnight escapes, it is the story of
a family. Of me trying to hold us together, and the terrible consequences of two men locked in a
power struggle that would break up our once tight-knit gang of five, and nearly destroy my
mother. Nowhere Girl is the story of having to make a choice between what you know is right
and losing your father’s love. Of being twenty-three and forced to confront the ultimate
questions: Who are you? And who would you be if you had everything to gain and nothing left to
lose?

For a long time, I felt that having such a strange and often traumatic childhood had marked me,
had made it impossible for me to be understood by others, or to connect with the outside world.
To ever have a good life. It was only when I forced myself to open up, make friends, and talk
about what I had survived that I realized a lot of other people had gone through similar
challenges. Perhaps not as many challenges, but enough that we could genuinely connect with
each other. I decided to write Nowhere Girl because I realized how many of us carry some sort
of shame or fear about not fitting in, which is often never voiced. But if we do speak, the very act
of baring our darker experiences actually brings people closer, rather than creating the judgment
we so fear.

I hope this book will show readers that no matter what happens to you, the rest of your life
doesn’t have to be defined by it. The best part of being an adult is that you get to change your
destiny—and you get to create your own family. Thank you for reading Nowhere Girl, and for
becoming a part of this story.

Cheryl Diamond