SOLVED. Adult Mystery with a hint of romance, 2009-2011: a lady in her 20s goes to where her grandmother was born to find out her past. Spoilers.

[Marcy]

Update: SOLVED January 29, 2024
The book is The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton!
I was looking through a bookstore when the title caught my eye. I read the synopsis and it sounded very familiar. I read the first few chapters and lo and behold it was the book I've been looking for!

Original post:
I tried searching but couldn't find anything! I read this book somewhere in I believe 2009-2011. It was an ebook and the laptop it was in broke soon after. I don't think it's a children's story, but it can't be an adult one either cause I was 11 years old max, meaning it was probably a young adult one.

Spoilers







A young lady (late 20s iirc) whose husband and son died in a car crash looks into her dead grandmother past.

The book had two perspectives: the young lady's and grandmother's biological mother (biomom).

Grandmother does not know the Biomom is the Biomom. The Biomom had a friend who was infertile because of multiple xrays she took as a young child. The xrays also gave her scars. The friend was rich, important because a lot of Biomom's perspective took place in her castle.

The friend married a painter who would often paint portraits of her. The friend became stressed and paranoid as years passed due to her infertility. The painter eventually painted the portraits from memory as the past looked much better.

For her friend, Biomom got pregnant and gave her the child. However, things turned bad (I don't remember exactly how).

A few years later, Biomom wanted to take the toddler grandma away on a boat to another coutnry. On the boat, Biomom remembered something she had to get. She told grandma that they will play hide and seek, and she left, but sadly got into an accident and died, leaving grandma alone. Grandma was adopted when she was found in the destination country.

Young lady finds out a lot with the help of a young man who she ends up falling in love with at the end of the book.