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A sparkling story about what happens when you let someone into your life… but they turn out to want more than you’d bargained for!

Sarah Dee has the perfect life. A high-flying job in a law firm, a beautiful daughter and a house to die for. So how does she find herself looking in through the kitchen window while another woman enjoys it all?

When Sarah takes pity on a struggling young graduate who can’t get a job, she thinks she’s doing the right thing. She’s being kind, generous and helpful to others, as she always is. But as Sarah allows the younger woman into her home, her law firm and even her family, is there more to this pretty youngster than meets the eye? And could this be a good deed that goes further than expected?

Claudia Carroll does it again with an incredible new novel about what happens when your life becomes up for grabs…

Buy link

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Our-Little-Secret-Claudia-Carroll-ebook/dp/B073YKLMY2

EXTRACT

Darcy(The third worst day of her life)

It had been slightly over a year now, but if pushed to it, Darcy could still remember with searing clarity the third worst day of her entire life to date. She’d just turned fifteen back then and was bird-happy in school with great friends, an even better social life and grades that – although they mightn’t exactly have set the world on fire – were certainly enough to keep everyone off her back.

Then her stupid parents had to go and break up, didn’t they? Her pal Abi, whose mum and dad were separated too, had always said it was such a relief when her old pair finally did call it a day. ‘I was fed up lying in bed night after night listening to the two of them tear strips off each other when they thought I couldn’t hear. Like I was deaf or something,’ she used to say.

When it came to Darcy and her parents, she’d almost wished for that, longed for it. Because anything was better than the forced politeness they’d started using towards each other whenever she was around. Young and all as she was, it wasn’t difficult to sense the surface tension simmering away between her mum and dad, each wary of letting rip at each other until they were alone. And even then, from the privacy of her bedroom Darcy could still hear them bickering away, no matter how loudly she turned up her headphones to try and block it all out.

She’d spend hours fretting and worrying herself into a frazzle over it. Whenever she was out on an overnight sleepover, while the other girls giggled and gossiped and stuffed their faces with pizza, she’d sit silently in a corner, stressed out of her mind wondering what the hell was happening at home without her around to referee and to keep the peace. Once, to her mum’s great worry, she’d even asked to be driven home in the middle of the night, claiming she was having a panic attack, even though it was perfectly obvious she wasn’t. Her hostess wasn’t a bit impressed, of course, and this carry on had worried her mum sick, but Darcy didn’t care. If her physically being home stopped the rowing, even temporarily, then wasn’t it worth it?

Second warning sign something was up? When they completely stopped doing things as a family, so Darcy had to spend time with her parents separately. Up until about a year ago, her family was the kind of tight-knit little unit that did everything together, to the point that her pals would often tease Darcy over it. But she’d just grin and say, welcome to the wonderful world of being an only child.

Back then she didn’t particularly care what any of her mates said. Because even trips to the shopping centre on a Saturday afternoon were like an adventure whenever she was with her mum and dad. The way her mum would be pretend-y annoyed when her dad slipped her fifty euros and told her to buy herself something nice in Topshop. Then there was the way he’d groan and roll his eyes whenever she and her mum disappeared off into House of Fraser, while he sloped off to have nice, peaceful coffee and a read of his paper. But he’d always come out with something light and jokey like, ‘ahh, would you look at the pair of you . . . if shopping were an Olympic sport, then my two girls would be world champions by now.’ Which showed he didn’t mind really, Darcy always figured.