Jude by Kate Morgenroth

Life isn't always fair. In Jude's case, life has been extraordinarily unfair. When his physically abusive, drug-dealing father is murdered in front of him, Jude is caught in a web of lies after he tells the police that he didn’t see the killer -- but he is only lying to protect himself. Life takes another turn when he is reunited with his high-powered District Attorney mother, who he had previously believed abandoned him and his father. Turns out he's been lied to this whole time; his father kidnapped him as a baby and had been hiding out for 15 years. Jude isn't even the name his mama gave him. When he leaves the rough neighborhood he's called home all these years to live with his wealthy mother and attend a fancy private school, it seems as though things are finally looking up. But when Jude is sort-of involved in a classmate's drug overdose, he takes the fall because his mother’s boyfriend convinces him that it will help his mother get elected as mayor. Even though it sounds like a bad idea, Jude goes along with the plan in the hopes of making his mother proud of him, and truly believes all will be forgiven when she learns of his innocence. Readers will surely root for Jude as he suffers injustice after injustice, both in and out of prison in this gripping page-turner.

Morgenroth, Kate. Jude. New York: Simon & Schuster Pulse, 2006.