Showing results by author "Sheryl Browne" in All Categories

On the last day of school, my friends and I gather on the beach to celebrate the long summer ahead. Sipping cans of warm cider and watching campfire embers dance into the inky sky, I don’t think I’ve ever been happier. Until a scream pierces the night. The next morning, we find shy newcomer Pippa on the beach, sandflies gathering on her lifeless body…

Rebecca only wanted to help out - to be kind. Richard seemed so alone after his wife, Nicole, died, and Rebecca wanted to make sure he knew he had someone on whom to rely. But now, she’s in Nicole’s immaculate house. Drinking from her favourite crystal wine glass. Keeping shoes in her orderly closet. Comforting her sweet and grieving stepdaughter. It feels like Rebecca is living another woman’s life.

With its peeling wallpaper and overgrown garden, I know our new home isn’t perfect. But my husband, Ben, promises it’s the fresh start we need. I remind myself that he’s an amazing father to our two children and that we have years of happy marriage behind us. He’s been distant for months, but I’m desperate to believe the move will bring us back together.

I take a sip of coffee as I plan my day. My surgeon husband, Cole, slept at work last night, so I had to get the kids ready on my own, again. I can’t complain, though, I’ve loved him ever since we met, long before he became a famous surgeon and the papers started calling him the pride of the hospital. Our latest family photo hangs on the kitchen wall and I remember that day so clearly. Cole screamed at me over nothing, then apologised saying he was stressed at work. My heart pounded with fear, but I plastered a smile on my face for the sake of my children.

Stroking her baby bump in the new home she shares with boyfriend Jack, Kara jumps at a knock at the door. On the doorstep stands Jack’s former mother-in-law. ‘Your boyfriend killed my daughter,’ she says. Jack always said his ex, Natalia, disappeared on a family holiday. It’s a heartbreaking story – and Kara knows she’ll never replace his first love.

Mark and Melissa Cain are thrilled to have found Jade, a babysitter who is brilliant with their young children. Having seen her own house burn to the ground, Jade needs them as much as they need her. Moving Jade into the family home can only be a good thing, can’t it? As Mark works long hours as a police officer and Melissa struggles with running a business, the family become ever more reliant on their babysitter, who is only too happy to help. And as Melissa begins to slip into depression, it’s Jade who is left picking up the pieces. But Mark soon notices things aren’t quite as they seem. Things at home feel wrong, and as Mark begins to investigate their seemingly perfect sitter, what he discovers shocks him to his core. He’s met Jade before. And now he suspects he might know what she wants.

Emily and Jake are the perfect couple. Or so everyone says. But Emily just read a letter that has shattered her perfect world. Now she only has one thing on her mind. Which one of her friends is sleeping with her husband?

Maddie and Kiara have been best friends since they met on their first day at university. They have always shared everything with each other--everything except one big secret, which Kiara knows would tear them apart…. When the police knock on Maddie’s front door as she and husband Nick are getting ready for the morning school run, she’s not expecting to hear what they have to tell her. Kiara is dead.

Alex and I haven’t been dating for very long when I go to his place for the first time. Feeling self-conscious as I notice a thread coming loose on my dress, he pours me a glass of wine and I take in the pristine room and expensive furnishings. Everything here is perfect, too perfect. Where are the personal touches, the souvenirs from his life? Where are the photos of his friends and family? ‘You can trust me,’ Alex says as he hands me the wine, and my heart beats wildly in my chest. I really want this to work, especially after the disaster of my last relationship.

Claire is shocked when she receives a message out of the blue from Sophie, a beautiful young woman who tells Claire that she’s their father’s secret child. Having spent years nursing her sweet little daughter, Ella, through a life-threatening illness whilst dealing with the emotional fall-out of a devastating marriage breakdown, Claire feels tentatively excited to meet Sophie. Perhaps she might finally have someone in the family to lean on....

Alicia’s been telling lies. And now, they’ve come back to haunt her. When an old colleague turns up at a party, Alicia comes face to face with the man who has the potential to ruin her perfect family life. He wouldn’t, would he? In order to keep her secrets, Alicia has to tell yet more lies, and when a devastating car accident makes the situation even more dangerous, it’s only a matter of time before everything falls apart. Can secrets really stay hidden forever?

A perfect mother. A loving daughter. A secret that could destroy them both. When I walk into my small family home after a long day at work, I find my mother in the living room, playing happily with my precious baby son, and my heart begins to race.

Tucking her little boy Ollie into bed one night, Sarah notices his beloved teddy bear, which she bought him when he was born, is missing and in its place is a new toy given to him by her ex-husband’s new girlfriend, Laura. When she asks Ollie about it, he begins to shift uncomfortably before whispering, "Laura told me a big secret, and she said I can never tell you." Soon, Ollie is asking to spend more time with his dad and Laura, and shrinking away from Sarah. Then, when she calls to him in the garden one day, Ollie doesn’t answer back.

When I first walked into Jake and Megan’s immaculate home, I felt totally at ease. Sitting in the crisp white living room, they held hands and talked lovingly about their baby girl, Fern. As the weeks passed, I began to think I’d made a mistake in taking the job. Jake was overly friendly from the start, watching my every move and always offering to drop me home, even though it was out of his way. And Megan seemed to take pleasure in telling me off in front of her husband, blaming me for things I hadn’t done.

Karla watches silently as Jason hurriedly packs his belongings into a suitcase. She knows that her stillness is unnerving him as she watches his every move from the doorway of their bedroom. "I’ve fallen in love with someone else", he’d said to her, just moments earlier. The brutality of those words hit Karla hard and she struggled to breathe as she took in each word in turn. You may think you know what Karla will do next. But you’ll be wrong. Because Karla isn't who you think she is. Only she knows what's about to happen. And you will never see it coming.

When I pick my beloved daughter Poppy up from school one afternoon, my mind races when I see the little girl holding Poppy’s hand. With the same heart-shaped face, long brown hair, and dark eyes, the two girls look identical. In fact, they look like sisters. Is the secret I’ve been holding on to for so long about to be revealed?

Cassie stares at the woman on her doorstep in disbelief. Just months after losing her only son, Josh, here stands a stranger claiming to be Josh’s girlfriend. But it’s not only the woman Cassie is shocked by, it’s the baby nestled in Kim’s arms. Cassie’s grandchild. I know what you did. As Cassie tries to do what’s best for baby Samuel, she starts to receive threatening messages from someone from her past - someone Cassie has been hiding from for a long time.

Staring at the stunning diamond solitaire on her finger, Kaitlin is finally getting the chance to introduce her best friend, Zoe, to her perfect fiancé. She hasn’t known Greg long, but he looks after her, and he loves playing dad to her young daughter. How could she say no when he’s already planned their elopement? As guests arrive, why is Greg acting so shifty? And is that a flicker of recognition on Zoe’s face? And why does she look terrified every time her phone rings?

Adam Hamilton-Shaw has more reason than most to avoid commitment. Living on a houseboat in the Severn Valley, his dream is to sail into the sunset - preferably with a woman waiting in every port. Would-be screenplay writer Sienna Meadows realises that everything about Adam spells trouble - but she can't ignore the intense physical attraction that exists between them. But can Adam change his damaging behaviour - or is the road to destruction a one-way street?