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Secrecy
First came the sin. Then the lies.
He was handsome, charming, irresistable, and an eighteen-year-old lady-killer, her uncle Cliff's stepson, Ted. But in one terrible night he would shatter the life of fourteen-year-old Charlotte Dawes and nearly destroy her family. Years afterward, Charlotte would remember that night with fear and loathing, with pain that could be banished only by her work as a gifted architect, building a new world for others as she conceals her own.
For Charlotte's family, prime employers in New England mill town, what happened to Charlotte was the beginning of the end. Her father is left shattered by his daughter's pain. Her troubled mother is unable to cope. And her distinguished family has fallen from grace, plunged into debt. The only rock that sustains them in their darkest hours is a woman whose own guilty secret has given her the power to ruin--or resurrect--the family to whom she owes her life.
Belva Plain's searing novel cuts to the heart of a family ravaged by secrecy. But it is ultimately a story of redemption, the kind that grows when one person dares to tell the truth.
He was handsome, charming, irresistable, and an eighteen-year-old lady-killer, her uncle Cliff's stepson, Ted. But in one terrible night he would shatter the life of fourteen-year-old Charlotte Dawes and nearly destroy her family. Years afterward, Charlotte would remember that night with fear and loathing, with pain that could be banished only by her work as a gifted architect, building a new world for others as she conceals her own.
For Charlotte's family, prime employers in New England mill town, what happened to Charlotte was the beginning of the end. Her father is left shattered by his daughter's pain. Her troubled mother is unable to cope. And her distinguished family has fallen from grace, plunged into debt. The only rock that sustains them in their darkest hours is a woman whose own guilty secret has given her the power to ruin--or resurrect--the family to whom she owes her life.
Belva Plain's searing novel cuts to the heart of a family ravaged by secrecy. But it is ultimately a story of redemption, the kind that grows when one person dares to tell the truth.
432 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
219 people are currently reading
697 people want to read
About the author
Belva Plain
147 books321 followersBelva Plain was a best-selling American author of mainstream women's fiction. Her first novel, Evergreen (1978) topped the New York Times bestseller list for 41 weeks and was made into a TV miniseries. At her death, there were over 30 million copies of her twenty-plus novels in print in 22 languages.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 82 reviews
January 13, 2013
When Charlotte Dawes is raped by her cousin-by-marriage, Ted at 14, her parents are furious. Charlotte becomes pregnant, and as she recovers from a ruptured tubal pregnancy both parents are at her bedside. Meanwhile, Ted continues assaulting women until he is caught and indicted. He then escapes from prison into the night. Eight years later, Charlotte is working in Manhattan and despairs of forming a relationship with a man, until she meets Roger Heywood who coaxes her out of her traumatic fear of sex. Disaster follows when a flood happens, potentially revealing a terrible secret. It was a little farfetched but I notice with Belva Plain that you really learn to care about the characters. I give it an A+!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 31, 2022
This book was a drag. It was VERY hard to believe this took place in the 80/90’s. Once understanding the age of the author it made a little more sense, haha. I found that it was difficult to follow, the author would go between characters internal dialogue without any indication. It was especially annoying when it went back from the daughter/mother. There were also times where time/location changed with no indication. The ending felt like the author realized she needed to wrap things up in ten pages and just tried to tie up a birthday gift with a Christmas bow. I found I had to force myself to finish this and would take breaks mid paragraph out of boredom (not something I do often). I know I could have stopped reading but I like to finish what I start… it’s a terrible habit.
March 13, 2025
Loved this book. Belva Plain sure know how to tell a story.
July 7, 2024
I've been a Belva Plain fan for a long time! She writes books with great characters and plots, this one included! There was lots of drama and an interesting ending!! A great read!
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March 16, 2017Bill and Cliff Dawes were brothers who had just closed their family's textile plant.
Bill met his wife Elena on a trip to Europe when he was 22. Elena was 20 and an orphan who had been left plenty of money. Their housekeeper was Emmabrown and had been with the boys from the time they were babies. Bill and Elena had a 14 yr. old daughter, Charlotte. It seemed to her that the fought all the time.
Cliff was 38 and marrying Claudia who had an 18 yr old son, Ted. Claudia had hoped that Cliff could be a father to Ted but that wasn't working out. Cliff didn't really like Ted although he tried.
Elena wasn't happy in the small New England town of Kingsley and after Cliff's wedding and a couple months after the closing of the plant, she told Bill she wanted to go to Florida for a couple of months. Charlotte went with her and found out that Elena was cheating on her father and returned home. Bill went to see Elena in Florida and returned home alone.
Charlotte began spending time with Claudia partly because Claudia seemed to enjoy having a girl around. Charlotte went to see Claudia one weekend but she and Cliff were out of town. Ted was home and they ate lunch together. He asked her to come back on Sunday and they would take his dogs for a walk. Charlotte agreed and returned on Sunday afternoon. They took the dogs for a walk and when they returned home, Ted gave her wine to drink. When he thought that she was drunk enough, he raped her. She didn't understand what had happened. She knew that he had hurt her. Ted told her that nothing had happened and to keep quiet. She had screamed but no one was there to hear her and she had no one to talk to about what happened. A couple months later she was having sharp pains in her abdomen and she had missed two periods. She knew something was wrong and took the bus to a neighboring town. She saw a doctor there who confirmed that she was pregnant. His nurse had looked in her book bag and found out her real name. The doctor called Bill and told him that Charlotte was pregnant but something was wrong and she needed to see an OB/GYN as soon as possible. Bill called Elena and she flew home. He talked to Charlotte after she got home and Charlotte told him what Ted had done. Bill called Cliff and Claudia and insisted that Ted be sent away, immediately. But Ted had already gotten himself in trouble for taking things to far with another girl in the neighborhood. He had raped two other girls and broken the nose of one of them. It was the daughter of the town's bank president. Ted was indicted and couldn't leave town.
Charlotte was taken to Boston and had surgery for a tubal pregnancy. She was told that she would be able to still have children in the future.
Elena told Bill and Charlotte that she was going back home to Italy. She wasn't yet asking for a divorce but they knew she wouldn't be back. Bill told Elena that he would take her to the airport. It was a few years later when Elena asked Bill for a divorce after telling him that she had met someone else.
Ted left the house one day and was never seen again. He had packed his bags and forged Claudia's signature and taken money out of the bank. This caused a lot of financial problems for both Cliff and Bill due to the loss of the bail money. They leased the plant to some people who they didn't really trust and let garbage pile up on the property. They were supposed to clean it up but kept postponing it and paying the fines.
Charlotte went away to boarding school for a year after the surgery. Ted was gone and she returned home after the year away. Claudia stopped Charlotte on the road one day and spoke to her. They agreed to work on their relationship and eventually began to spend time together. Charlotte had Claudia to lean on during her adolescent years and learned how to cook. She became interested in architecture through Claudia's book collection and went to college and grad school to become an architect.
Charlotte didn't have much to do with men. She was still scarred from her experience with Ted. She met a teaching assistant and tried to have a relationship with him. They tried to have sex but she couldn't get past the memory and he didn't have anything more to do with her after one bad night. Charlotte was disappointed. She met someone soon after and they were together for 3 and a half months. He told her he was waiting for her to make a move when she was satisfied for their just being friend. He told her that it was time to take the next step in their relationship she told him that she wasn't ready and he also left. She decided to concentrate on her work. She did that and did a good job working for Pauline and Rudy.
Charlotte went home one weekend to see her father and came upon an idea to build a business community/strip mall on the property containing the plant. The garbage people would have to be let out of their lease and removed from the property. The lot would have to be cleaned up. The problem was they had to get the owners to quit collecting the garbage and give up the last 9 years on their lease. The company was most likely owned by mobsters.
Claudia had a bad heart and it was causing her problems. She was still constantly aware that Ted might get caught and return home at any time. This was a constant concern. She didn't know whether to be happy or sad should that happen. She knew that her son had cost her family a great deal. Ted's father had been killed by mobsters when he was still a young boy. Claudia knew who killed her husband and he was in town as he was involved with the company that Bill and Cliff had leased the plant property to. She went to see him and he agreed to leave the premises. Claudia returned home after speaking with him and went for a walk. She had a heart attack and died while on that walk.
Charlotte had met a guy named Roger by then. He was interested in her and noticed her at lunch time sketching one day. She was working on the design for the mini-mall she wanted to build on the plant property. Roger worked for an investment company nearby. He had seen her at a party hosted by her bosses. He used his interest in the sketch as an excuse to approach her. They cautiously approached a relationship and took it slow. He knew that something was bothering her and convinced her it was safe to talk to him about it. She told him about the rape and he was patient with her and eventually she was relaxed enough to sleep with him. Charlotte felt that with him their relationship had healed her.
Roger convinced Charlotte to let him work on getting financing to use her plans to build the place in Kingsley. They began working on the project and there was a problem. The investors wanted to drain the marsh around the property. Bill was adamant that it not happen. Roger and Charlotte along with Cliff tried to convince Bill to allow it. They got nowhere.
Charlotte was convinced to take some time off by Roger. He convinced her to go visit Elena in Italy. Charlotte did and for some reason ended up telling her mother about the problems she was having with her father and the property. Elena told Charlotte that Bill didn't want the marsh drained because of Ted. The morning that Bill took Elena to Boston for her flight to Italy, they saw Ted. He was carrying a suitcase and they were convinced he was running away. Bill stopped and chased Ted into the marsh. Ted went in to far and went into an area that was too deep to come out of. He drowned there in the swamp. Elena knew about it and ran into the swamp in enough time to keep Bill from being drowned too. They were convinced that because of what happened with Charlotte that no one would think it was an accident so they never told anyone. It was a secret that Bill was keeping inside and having to live with. He hadn't even told his brother and it had severely crippled them financially. Now Charlotte understood her father's actions about not draining the marsh. She promised not to tell anyone, not even Roger.
She returned home and went to see her father. The lack of continuance of work on the property in Kingsley was bankrupting Roger. He and Charlotte separated because he knew that she was keeping something from him. He didn't think they could go any further in their relationship if she didn't trust him. She felt awful but her blood ties to her father were stronger than her ties to Roger.
She went home for Christmas and there was severe flooding. A lot of damage was done and Ted's body was washed up. Bill told Cliff about what had happened to Ted. Cliff told him that he would have been mad if Claudia would have still been alive. With her gone, Cliff told Bill that he understood his actions. They kept a close eye on the progress of what the officials were going to do with the body. They determined that Ted was escaping and drowned in the marsh because he was taking a shortcut to get out of town. No one was ever charged with his murder.
Roger had heard about the flooding and had come to see Charlotte. He told her that he loved her and wanted to marry her. She told him the story that Elena had relayed to her about Ted. Now that his body was recovered, they could begin work on the plant property project. This they did. Charlotte and Rogers relationship was back on track. Bill and Cliff just might be able to hold onto their individual houses now.
Bill met his wife Elena on a trip to Europe when he was 22. Elena was 20 and an orphan who had been left plenty of money. Their housekeeper was Emmabrown and had been with the boys from the time they were babies. Bill and Elena had a 14 yr. old daughter, Charlotte. It seemed to her that the fought all the time.
Cliff was 38 and marrying Claudia who had an 18 yr old son, Ted. Claudia had hoped that Cliff could be a father to Ted but that wasn't working out. Cliff didn't really like Ted although he tried.
Elena wasn't happy in the small New England town of Kingsley and after Cliff's wedding and a couple months after the closing of the plant, she told Bill she wanted to go to Florida for a couple of months. Charlotte went with her and found out that Elena was cheating on her father and returned home. Bill went to see Elena in Florida and returned home alone.
Charlotte began spending time with Claudia partly because Claudia seemed to enjoy having a girl around. Charlotte went to see Claudia one weekend but she and Cliff were out of town. Ted was home and they ate lunch together. He asked her to come back on Sunday and they would take his dogs for a walk. Charlotte agreed and returned on Sunday afternoon. They took the dogs for a walk and when they returned home, Ted gave her wine to drink. When he thought that she was drunk enough, he raped her. She didn't understand what had happened. She knew that he had hurt her. Ted told her that nothing had happened and to keep quiet. She had screamed but no one was there to hear her and she had no one to talk to about what happened. A couple months later she was having sharp pains in her abdomen and she had missed two periods. She knew something was wrong and took the bus to a neighboring town. She saw a doctor there who confirmed that she was pregnant. His nurse had looked in her book bag and found out her real name. The doctor called Bill and told him that Charlotte was pregnant but something was wrong and she needed to see an OB/GYN as soon as possible. Bill called Elena and she flew home. He talked to Charlotte after she got home and Charlotte told him what Ted had done. Bill called Cliff and Claudia and insisted that Ted be sent away, immediately. But Ted had already gotten himself in trouble for taking things to far with another girl in the neighborhood. He had raped two other girls and broken the nose of one of them. It was the daughter of the town's bank president. Ted was indicted and couldn't leave town.
Charlotte was taken to Boston and had surgery for a tubal pregnancy. She was told that she would be able to still have children in the future.
Elena told Bill and Charlotte that she was going back home to Italy. She wasn't yet asking for a divorce but they knew she wouldn't be back. Bill told Elena that he would take her to the airport. It was a few years later when Elena asked Bill for a divorce after telling him that she had met someone else.
Ted left the house one day and was never seen again. He had packed his bags and forged Claudia's signature and taken money out of the bank. This caused a lot of financial problems for both Cliff and Bill due to the loss of the bail money. They leased the plant to some people who they didn't really trust and let garbage pile up on the property. They were supposed to clean it up but kept postponing it and paying the fines.
Charlotte went away to boarding school for a year after the surgery. Ted was gone and she returned home after the year away. Claudia stopped Charlotte on the road one day and spoke to her. They agreed to work on their relationship and eventually began to spend time together. Charlotte had Claudia to lean on during her adolescent years and learned how to cook. She became interested in architecture through Claudia's book collection and went to college and grad school to become an architect.
Charlotte didn't have much to do with men. She was still scarred from her experience with Ted. She met a teaching assistant and tried to have a relationship with him. They tried to have sex but she couldn't get past the memory and he didn't have anything more to do with her after one bad night. Charlotte was disappointed. She met someone soon after and they were together for 3 and a half months. He told her he was waiting for her to make a move when she was satisfied for their just being friend. He told her that it was time to take the next step in their relationship she told him that she wasn't ready and he also left. She decided to concentrate on her work. She did that and did a good job working for Pauline and Rudy.
Charlotte went home one weekend to see her father and came upon an idea to build a business community/strip mall on the property containing the plant. The garbage people would have to be let out of their lease and removed from the property. The lot would have to be cleaned up. The problem was they had to get the owners to quit collecting the garbage and give up the last 9 years on their lease. The company was most likely owned by mobsters.
Claudia had a bad heart and it was causing her problems. She was still constantly aware that Ted might get caught and return home at any time. This was a constant concern. She didn't know whether to be happy or sad should that happen. She knew that her son had cost her family a great deal. Ted's father had been killed by mobsters when he was still a young boy. Claudia knew who killed her husband and he was in town as he was involved with the company that Bill and Cliff had leased the plant property to. She went to see him and he agreed to leave the premises. Claudia returned home after speaking with him and went for a walk. She had a heart attack and died while on that walk.
Charlotte had met a guy named Roger by then. He was interested in her and noticed her at lunch time sketching one day. She was working on the design for the mini-mall she wanted to build on the plant property. Roger worked for an investment company nearby. He had seen her at a party hosted by her bosses. He used his interest in the sketch as an excuse to approach her. They cautiously approached a relationship and took it slow. He knew that something was bothering her and convinced her it was safe to talk to him about it. She told him about the rape and he was patient with her and eventually she was relaxed enough to sleep with him. Charlotte felt that with him their relationship had healed her.
Roger convinced Charlotte to let him work on getting financing to use her plans to build the place in Kingsley. They began working on the project and there was a problem. The investors wanted to drain the marsh around the property. Bill was adamant that it not happen. Roger and Charlotte along with Cliff tried to convince Bill to allow it. They got nowhere.
Charlotte was convinced to take some time off by Roger. He convinced her to go visit Elena in Italy. Charlotte did and for some reason ended up telling her mother about the problems she was having with her father and the property. Elena told Charlotte that Bill didn't want the marsh drained because of Ted. The morning that Bill took Elena to Boston for her flight to Italy, they saw Ted. He was carrying a suitcase and they were convinced he was running away. Bill stopped and chased Ted into the marsh. Ted went in to far and went into an area that was too deep to come out of. He drowned there in the swamp. Elena knew about it and ran into the swamp in enough time to keep Bill from being drowned too. They were convinced that because of what happened with Charlotte that no one would think it was an accident so they never told anyone. It was a secret that Bill was keeping inside and having to live with. He hadn't even told his brother and it had severely crippled them financially. Now Charlotte understood her father's actions about not draining the marsh. She promised not to tell anyone, not even Roger.
She returned home and went to see her father. The lack of continuance of work on the property in Kingsley was bankrupting Roger. He and Charlotte separated because he knew that she was keeping something from him. He didn't think they could go any further in their relationship if she didn't trust him. She felt awful but her blood ties to her father were stronger than her ties to Roger.
She went home for Christmas and there was severe flooding. A lot of damage was done and Ted's body was washed up. Bill told Cliff about what had happened to Ted. Cliff told him that he would have been mad if Claudia would have still been alive. With her gone, Cliff told Bill that he understood his actions. They kept a close eye on the progress of what the officials were going to do with the body. They determined that Ted was escaping and drowned in the marsh because he was taking a shortcut to get out of town. No one was ever charged with his murder.
Roger had heard about the flooding and had come to see Charlotte. He told her that he loved her and wanted to marry her. She told him the story that Elena had relayed to her about Ted. Now that his body was recovered, they could begin work on the plant property project. This they did. Charlotte and Rogers relationship was back on track. Bill and Cliff just might be able to hold onto their individual houses now.
January 31, 2019
Was not overly enthused with this one. A story about a 14 year old girl who is raped by the son of an inlaw. He also rapes 2 other young girls and gets turned in, but let out on bail. He runs and is never seen again. The ending was not as predictable as I thought it would be, so that was a surprise and did keep me reading just to find out what happens. It was definitely not something that kept me riveted; only curious enough to read it all.
May 2, 2019
It has a perfect happy ending which makes it unreal.
June 19, 2021
Couldn’t get through half of it. Just a terrible writing style. Written in 1997 but feels like it was written in the 50’s. No more from this author for me.
April 20, 2022
Good read. Story of how a rape followed by a murder kept secret for decades affected the lives of two families that were good friends initially. Eventually mother nature ended the secret thru a flood due to a storm, revealing the body of the rapist. The victim of the raoe had finally almost achieved her dreams of being an architect and designing a village community that would benefit her town by getting rid of some eyesores that had failed thru the years and dong away with a swamp. She had finally been able to fall in love and get over her traumatic rape too. Her lover was a developer that made her dream of creating this village possible. Her father could not allow it to go forward because he had been the one to accidentally kill her rapist, whose body was in the swap. The ending once the secret was out allowed all involved to get back to "life without fear ".
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 29, 2022
Captivating Storyline, interesting characters
It's been a while since I read a Belva Plain book. I hope to read another of her books real soon. Charlotte is a young teenage girl when the story first starts. She has a very traumatic experience that continues to shape her relationships, family and really her life. The storyline kept me not wanting to put it down. Some of the characters, l know. Both of those "attributes" made this a great book.
It's been a while since I read a Belva Plain book. I hope to read another of her books real soon. Charlotte is a young teenage girl when the story first starts. She has a very traumatic experience that continues to shape her relationships, family and really her life. The storyline kept me not wanting to put it down. Some of the characters, l know. Both of those "attributes" made this a great book.
December 31, 2018
I like reading books that take place locally and trying to figure out settings. The storyline was interesting and I had fun trying to figure out if this was in the north white mountains area, maybe St. Johnsbury in Vermont. But this book was not,as,well,written as the first book of hers that I read.
September 1, 2025
I'm sure alot of people thought the world of Belva Plain and her writing,but I didn't like this book at all. For me it kind of lagged.I didn't like any of the characters.It wasn't a pleasant story or romantic.It became all about what happened to the guy,and what he did.I'm about ready to read a different book.This is too draining.
July 26, 2018
I got this book blindly, and was SHOCKED at how good it really was! It covers all the bases... love, mystery, crime. I was literally exclaiming out loud at the turn of events. It’s a fast read but definitely worth the ride.
March 7, 2019
Secrets of a 14 year old who was raped and then the 21 year old rapist runs away when 2 other girls press charges. Her mother moved to Italy so the young girl has no one to help her overcome her fears. Her life is affected by the secrets she kept.
October 30, 2024
I continue to read Belva Plain’s novels because even though the language is extremely antiquated for the time period in which the stories take place, the plot is always interesting. She spins a good yarn, despite the corny dialogue.
June 29, 2025
Another mesmerizing read
A truly engrossing story with unsuspecting turns. It drew me in and as usual, hated it to come an end. I love the author 's ability to create so many fascinating novels about family sagas, and will be moving on to the next great read!
A truly engrossing story with unsuspecting turns. It drew me in and as usual, hated it to come an end. I love the author 's ability to create so many fascinating novels about family sagas, and will be moving on to the next great read!
March 12, 2018
I enjoyed this book - thought it all came together nicely in the end. Always love a twist too.
March 6, 2019
Suspense
Keeps you guessing. This author can spin a tale that will keep you coming back for more. A great read!
Keeps you guessing. This author can spin a tale that will keep you coming back for more. A great read!
August 26, 2019
Great plot twist!
June 21, 2020
3-1/2*
July 27, 2020
It is good reading, exeptionally nice use of the language, but I have read better by Belva Plain.
October 10, 2020
Bummer book.
June 10, 2021
boring
November 22, 2021
Too long and too much
February 23, 2022
Wonderful twists and turns until the end!
Read
April 4, 2022Didn't finish. Got pretty far but for some reason I just wasn't invested enough to finish, which is unusual for a Belva Plain novel. I usually like most of her writing.
April 8, 2022
It was a fun book, although I was figuring things out before they happened. Easy read!
August 2, 2022
I liked this one….it held my interest and I was unsure how it would all work out. It kept me reading into the night….and instead of any house or garden work! I enjoyed it!
September 1, 2022
Good plot ideas. Writing was stilted.
October 1, 2022
¡ES UN LIBRO INCREIBLE! Al principio es muy fuerte pero después da unos giros tan inesperados que sorprenden tanto e hicieron que no pueda parar de leerlo
Displaying 1 - 30 of 82 reviews