Lock and Key (novel)
After her drug and alcohol addicted mother abandons her, child services forces 17-year-old Ruby Cooper to move in with her sister, Cora, who had left for college when Ruby was young. Ruby is upset about this arrangement and continues to wear the key to her old home on a chain around her neck. After learning she will be transferring to a new high school, Ruby attempts to run away but is found out. Nate Cross, Jamie and Cora's next-door neighbor, covers for her. Over the span of the story, Ruby slowly becomes closer to Nate.
Ruby Romaine
Besides Desiree, Ruby also as a son, Buddy. Ruby gave birth to her children six months apart, "That way I could spend a lot of time with them and make sure that they were growing up right." Desiree steals from the morgue where she works. Buddy was the product of incest. Ruby had an affair with her uncle, Shep. She was able to conceal her pregnancy by telling her mother that she was "nursing kids for the county." Buddy didn't meet his "Uncle Daddy" until he was an adult competing in a car show contest. Shep took the car Buddy won and disappeared from his life yet again.