Tell Me a Secret (21 page)
Authors: Holly Cupala
Tags: #Juvenile Fiction, #General, #Social Issues, #Death & Dying, #Pregnancy
I am indebted to many for their unflagging support: To Edward Necarsulmer IV, who had me at “wow” and has been wowing me ever since, and to Catherine Onder and the HarperCollins team, whose talents glow with uncommon grace;
To the generous people at the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators for the gift of a Work-In-Progress Grant;
To my panel of experts—Michelle Grandy, CNM; Kari Christie, MSW, LICSW; and Thom Johnson, Rocket Scientist—who helped me navigate possibilities, time, and space;
To Splashdown—Melissa Kaplan, Kasson Crooker, and Adam Buhler—for inspiration and use of lyrics from their song, “Presumed Lost”
To my writer friends and mentors: Molly Blaisdell, Annie Gage, Julie Reinhardt, Martha Brockenbrough, Sara Easterly, Mitali Perkins, Peggy King Anderson, Katherine Grace Bond, Judy Bodmer, Dawn Knight, Jet Harrington, Meg Lippert, Brenda Guiberson, Kathryn
Galbraith, Kirby Larson, Bonny Becker, Kathy Adler, Donna Bergman, Clare Meeker, and the readergirlz—Lorie Ann Grover, Dia Calhoun, Melissa Walker, and especially Justina Chen for opening one door and Janet Lee Carey for closing another;
To my parents, nieces Nellie and Molly, and family; to friends Amy, Deanna, Glynis, Pam, Alice, Kristine, Erika, Cathy, Claudia, the Crookers, the good people of Capitol Hill Pres, and the real BabyCenter girls—they know what is truth and what is fiction, but they will never tell.
Above all, I offer gratitude and love to my husband, daughter, and the memory of our dear Ezri—and to the Author and Finisher of our continuing story.
HOLLY CUPALA
wrote teen romance novels before she ever actually experienced teen romance. When she did, her writing became all about about tragic poetry and slightly less tragic novels. When she isn’t contributing to www.readergirlz.com and writing, she spends time with her husband and daughter in Seattle, Washington. These days, her writing is less about tragedy and more about hope.
TELL ME A SECRET
is her first novel. Part of the author’s proceeds from this book will go toward helping sexually exploited girls around the globe. To find out more, visit Holly online at www.hollycupala.com.
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.
Jacket art © 2010 by T. Kruesselmann/Zefa Photography/Veer
Jacket design by Alison Klapthor
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
TELL ME A SECRET
. Text copyright © 2010 by Holly Cupala. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cupala, Holly.
Tell me a secret / by Holly Cupala.—1st ed.
p. cm.
Summary: Seventeen-year-old Rand’s unexpected pregnancy leads her on a path to unravel the mystery of her sister’s death and face her own more hopeful future.
ISBN 978-0-06-176666-4 (trade bdg.)
[1. Sisters—Fiction. 2. Pregnancy—Fiction. 3. Secrets—Fiction. 4. Family problems—Fiction. 5. Seattle (Wash.)—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.C91747Te 2010 2009035132
[Fic]—dc22 CIP
AC
FIRST EDITION
EPub Edition © April 2010 ISBN: 978-0-06-200153-5
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
25 Ryde Road (PO Box 321)
Pymble, NSW 2073, Australia
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com.au
Canada
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
55 Avenue Road, Suite 2900
Toronto, ON, M5R, 3L2, Canada
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.ca
New Zealand
HarperCollinsPublishers (New Zealand) Limited
P.O. Box 1
Auckland, New Zealand
http://www.harpercollins.co.nz
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
77-85 Fulham Palace Road
London, W6 8JB, UK
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.uk
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
10 East 53rd Street
New York, NY 10022
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com