The Secret Sister. Karen Clarke
KAREN CLARKE lives in Buckinghamshire with her husband and three grown-up children, where she writes romantic comedy novels and psychological suspense.
When she’s not writing, she reads a lot, enjoys walking – which is good for plot-wrangling and ideas, watching Netflix, baking and eating cakes. And then more walking to work off the cakes.
AMANDA BRITTANY lives in Hertfordshire with her husband and two dogs. She is the bestselling author of Her Last Lie and Tell the Truth, and her third psychological thriller, Traces of Her, was published in October 2019. Her debut, Her Last Lie, has raised almost £8,000 so far for Cancer Research UK from her ebook royalties, in memory of her sister.
When she’s not writing, Amanda loves reading, walking, travelling and going to the theatre.
The Secret Sister
K A CLARKE AND A J BRITTANY
HQ
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by HQ in 2020
Copyright © K A Clarke and A J Brittany
K A Clarke and A J Brittany assert the moral right to be identified as the authors of this work.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
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, downloaded, 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-book Edition © January 2020 ISBN: 9780008376246
Version: 2019-12-10
Table of Contents
About the Authors
Prologue: Ella
Chapter 1: Colleen
Chapter 2: Ella
Chapter 3: Ella
Chapter 4: Colleen
Chapter 5: Ella
Chapter 6: Colleen
Chapter 7: Ella
Chapter 8: Colleen
Chapter 9: Ella
Chapter 10: Colleen
Chapter 11: Ella
Chapter 12: Colleen
Chapter 13: Colleen
Chapter 14: Ella
Chapter 15: Ella
Chapter 16: Colleen
Chapter 17: Ella
Chapter 18: Colleen
Chapter 19: Ella
Chapter 20: Ella
Chapter 21: Colleen
Chapter 22: Colleen
Chapter 23: Colleen
Chapter 24: Ella
Chapter 25: Ella
Chapter 26: Colleen
Chapter 27: Ella
Chapter 28: Colleen
Chapter 29: Ella
Chapter 30: Colleen
Chapter 31: Ella
Chapter 32: Colleen
Chapter 33: Colleen
Chapter 34: Ella
Chapter 35: Colleen
Epilogue: Anna
Acknowledgements
About the Publisher
For our families, with love.
When you’ve led a charmed life, I suppose it’s inevitable that it’ll fall apart at some point.
It happened to me after my mother died, though her death was the catalyst, not the cause.
Mum had been ill for a while and had come to terms with dying. She’d lived to see me happily married, and to meet her precious granddaughter. I thought we’d had time to say all the things that mattered.
When the end came it was peaceful, with her family gathered around, and I was holding her hand.
It was much later, while clearing out her bedroom, that I realised I hadn’t known my mother as well as I thought I had.
The one thing that really mattered had been left unsaid.
Saturday
The sun woke me, slanting through the half-open curtains, hurting my eyes. I rolled out of bed, pulled my hoodie on over my pants, and padded to the window.
My brain pulsed against my skull. I felt sick and fragile. It had been years since I’d suffered a hangover, but I’d never forgotten the feeling.
The view from the ground-floor window