FAQs

Who is Rebecca Rivera?

Rebecca Rivera is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, entrepreneur, and author with nearly two decades of experience working in mental health, trauma, relationships, and psychological dynamics. Throughout her clinical career, she has worked closely with individuals navigating emotional abuse, manipulation, grief, trauma, and complex interpersonal relationships—experiences that deeply influenced the emotional depth and psychological realism within What We Shared in Silence.

What is What We Shared in Silence about?

What We Shared in Silence is a narrative nonfiction story told through the perspectives of three women whose lives become intertwined through a charismatic and deeply complicated man. As they are pulled further into his world, the boundaries between truth, fear, devotion, and manipulation begin to blur.

Written with the pacing and emotional tension of a psychological thriller, the book explores emotional survival, loyalty, coercion, and the unsettling experience of questioning your own reality.

Is the book based on a true story?

Yes. What We Shared in Silence is based on real-life experiences and real events. However, it is written in the style of narrative nonfiction, which means true events are told using immersive storytelling techniques often found in novels and thrillers.

The dialogue, emotional experiences, and perspectives are crafted to place readers directly inside the psychological experience of the story while remaining grounded in reality.

What is narrative nonfiction?

Narrative nonfiction is a genre that tells true stories using the structure, pacing, and emotional immersion of fiction. Rather than reading like a traditional memoir or documentary account, narrative nonfiction allows readers to experience events as they unfold in real time through scene-building, dialogue, atmosphere, and multiple perspectives.

In What We Shared in Silence, this approach allows readers to feel the same uncertainty, fear, attachment, and confusion the women experienced themselves—never fully knowing what was real, what wasn’t, or who to trust.

Is this a thriller or a memoir?

It exists somewhere between psychological thriller, true crime, and narrative nonfiction.

While the events are rooted in real life, the storytelling is intentionally immersive and suspenseful. The book is designed to make readers question what they believe alongside the women in the story, creating a constant sense of tension, uncertainty, and emotional unease.

How did your background as a therapist influence the book?

Rebecca’s background as a therapist heavily shaped the emotional and psychological layers of the story. Her clinical experience provided insight into trauma bonding, coercive control, emotional manipulation, grief, attachment, and the complex reasons people remain in situations that may not make sense from the outside.

Rather than focusing only on what happened, the book explores why people believe, stay, protect, defend, and struggle to leave—even when doubt begins to surface.

Why did you decide to write this story?

Rebecca Rivera wrote What We Shared in Silence not only to tell a story, but to give voice to experiences that are often misunderstood, minimized, or judged from the outside.

As a therapist, Rebecca has spent years working with individuals navigating trauma, grief, fear, emotional survival, and deeply complicated relationships. One truth she has seen repeatedly is that people often judge themselves harshly in hindsight for things that were far more difficult to understand while living through them. Life is rarely experienced with perfect clarity in the moment. Decisions are made in real time, shaped by emotion, love, fear, loyalty, and the information available at the time.

She wanted women reading this story to understand that they are not alone.

So many people find themselves navigating emotionally overwhelming situations while simply trying to protect the people they love and make the best decisions they can. Trust is a fundamental part of relationships, and believing in someone you care about should not be viewed as weakness or failure. Sometimes people carry burdens, fears, and circumstances that are difficult for others to fully understand from the outside looking in.

This book was written to explore the emotional complexity of those experiences without shame or easy judgment. Rather than focusing on simple answers, the story invites readers into the uncertainty itself—the tension between perception and reality, between instinct and devotion, and between what we fear may be true and what we desperately hope is not.

At its core, What We Shared in Silence is about love, fear, loyalty, survival, and the deeply human need to believe in the people who matter to us most.