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Public Secrets Novel Chapters
List of most recent chapters published for the Public Secrets novel. A total of 282 chapters have been translated and the release date of the last chapter is Apr 02, 2024
Latest Release: Chapter 1 : PUBLIC SECRETS.BY NORA ROBERTS.PROLOGUE Los Angeles, 1990 SHE SLAMMED ON THE brakes, ram
PUBLIC SECRETS.BY NORA ROBERTS.PROLOGUE Los Angeles, 1990 SHE SLAMMED ON THE brakes, ramming hard into the curb. The radio
continued to blare. She pressed both hands against her mouth to hold back hysterical laughter. A blast from the past, the disk jock
- 1 PUBLIC SECRETS.BY NORA ROBERTS.PROLOGUE Los Angeles, 1990 SHE SLAMMED ON THE brakes, ramming hard into the curb. The radio continued to blare. She pressed both hands against her mouth to hold back hysterical laughter. A blast from the past, the disk jock
- 2 woman for one thing, and you'll find out what that is soon enough. When they're done, they're done, and you're left with a big stomach and a broken heart."She picked up a cigarette and began to smoke it in quick, jerky puffs as sh
- 3 bulleted up the charts. "Got everything you wanted."d.a.m.ned if he'd let her make him feel guilty because he'd made something of himself "That's right.""Some of us get more than they want." She tossed her long
- 4 He remembered, though he wished he didn't. He'd been nineteen and full of music and rage. Someone had brought cocaine and after he'd snorted for the first time he'd felt like a thoroughbred stud. Quivering to tick."So you had a ba
- 5 having all of your troop in there. This is between Brian and me."Johnno grinned at her. "You always did your best work in the bed room, didn't you, luy?" Their eyes held for a moment, the disgust they had always felt for each other cle
- 6 "I fixed her up real nice." There was a whine in Jane's voice now. The smell of the gin was making her mouth water, but she was afraid to pour a gla.s.s. "And I told her it was important to stay tidy. Didn't I tell you to stay tid
- 7 His hands had balled into fists at his sides. "Put her down.""I'll kill her." She said it more calmly this time, having centered on it. "I'll slit her throat, I swear it, and then my own. Can you live with that, Brian?&q
- 8 "Is my mam coming?""No."Her eyes filled, but she picked up her battered black dog and hugged it close. "Is Charlie?""Sure." Brian held out his arms, and lifted her. "Hope you know what you're doing, son.&q
- 10 been she who had pressured him into seeing Jane again, into finding out the truth about the child. Folding her hands in her lap, Bev stared into the dusty marble fireplace. "You've known her a long time.""She was the first girl I ever
- 11 stop hara.s.sing us. She was exactly the same, screaming one minute, pleading the next. She said Emma was in the bedroom, but she wasn't there. She was hiding." He pressed the heels of his hands against his eyes. "Jesus, Bev, I found the ki
- 12 "We'll take a look."She was still on the sofa, her arms curled tight around Charlie. The blare of the television didn't disturb her as she slept. There were tears drying on her cheeks. Seeing them, Bev's heart broke a little."
- 13 one as she heard voices. Emma scooted back against the wall and sat frozen, staring at the shards of china from the vase she'd broken.They would beat her. Send her away. Shut her up in a dark room to be eaten."Emma?" Still dazed with sleep,
- 14 soon to take her away again.Bev had driven her in the pretty car to go shopping in a big store with bright clothes and beautiful smells. She had bought bags and boxes of things for Emma. Emma liked a pink organdy dress with a frilly skirt the best. She�
- 15 day entertain giants like McCartney, Jagger, Daltrey, in his own house. And his wedding, too. Good Christ, he was married. A married man with a gold ring on his finger.Tapping his bare foot to the beat of the music that crashed its way up the stairs, he&#
- 16 Emma remembered Jane crying, and the smacks and shoves that had usually accompanied the tears. So she waited, but Bev never hit her, not even at night when the workmen were gone and they were all alone in the big house.Day after day, Emma would cuddle up
- 17 Brian's child. Instinctively Bev laid a hand over the life she carried.She'd wanted so desperately to give Brian his first child. That wasn't to be. Yet every time she felt resentment, she had only to look at Emma for it to fade. How could
- 18 plant more roses, though. Don't you?"Emma's lip poked out a little as she moved her shoulders."We had a lovely garden when I was a girl," Bev continued desperately."I used to love to go out in the summer with a book and liste
- 19 "No, no one will hurt it." With a sigh, Bev slipped an arm around Emma's shoulders and looked out toward the hedgerow. This time Emma didn't inch away, but sat still, fascinated, one hand over Bev's stomach."I'm a little
- 20 "Yeah." He drew on the joint he had lit to extend the high. "I wish you were here."She heard the background noises, loud music, male and female laughter mixed with it. "So do I.""Then come." He pushed away a blonde,
- 21 drugs. Just as he'd had no idea, until he had slipped into her, there on the floor with the candles guttering in their own wax, that it was her first encounter with s.e.x.She'd wept a little. Instead of making him feel guilty, her tears had brou
- 22 "He wanted to come, but I had to veto it." He took Bev's carry-on bag, then her arm. "The lads can't even open a window for a breath of air without causing ma.s.s hysteria.""And you love it."He grinned, steering her
- 23 "Just as well," Pete said as he pulled out a key. "You've a couple of hours before the boys' interview. It's with some new mag that'll publish its first issue later this year. Rolling Stone."She took the key, please
- 24 long, fluid sigh of grat.i.tude and hope.Later, when she lay half dozing under the tangled sheets, Brian sat at the foot of the bed in his underwear. She was sated with s.e.x, but his mind was in overdrive. Everything he'd ever wanted, ever dreamed o
- 25 worse things, he mused, since Emma hadn't been made out of anything remotely resembling love. It was his other child, he thought as he laid a gentle hand on Bev's stomach again, who had been made of love. "I need you with me on this."H
- 26 "Soup," Bev put in."Cake and soup," he amended. "And some nice tea."He set her down to go to the phone and ring room service."Come over here, Emma. I have something for yon." Johnno patted the cus.h.i.+on beside him
- 27 drinking, late at night, in the bas.e.m.e.nt of Brian's flat. This time, Johnno had pinched whiskey from his father. The stench of garbage had been rank as they sat with a candle between them, pa.s.sing the bottle back and forth. On the dented portab
- 28 "Sure." Brian pa.s.sed the cigarette. "As long as I don't start making you hot and bothered."And that had been the end of it.When Johnno took a lover, he took him discreetly, and never discussed it. His s.e.xual preference was com
- 29 mind. As long as her hand was firmly caught in Bev's, she could crane her neck and look at all the people. Bald heads, floppy hats, scraggly beards. When her neck got tired, she switched to shoes. Rope sandals, s.h.i.+ny wing tips, snowy white sneake
- 30 preferred her own view, through her own eyes."Can we live here?"Bev fiddled with the telescope until she focused on the Statue of Liberty. "Here, in New York?""Here. On top." "No one lives here, Emma.""Why not?
- 31 cheap.He'd have paid twice as much, she thought as she nursed her gin. More than twice, no matter how much the b.a.s.t.a.r.d Pete had frowned and muttered. Brian had wanted Emma. He had a soft spot for children.She'd known it, but, she thought i
- 32 Chicago that had seemed as big as the ocean to her. And Hollywood.She'd liked the big white sign, and remembering it, tried to picture all the letters.Her father had played at a huge theater there right outside. They had called it a bowl. She had tho
- 33 She didn't care about fame or beggars or anything else. She only wanted to see her brother. The moment the door opened, she pulled her sweaty hand from Johnno's and shot down the hall."Let me see him," she demanded.Brian bent over, s.h
- 34 "I don't know. I get the feeling babies are pretty unpredictable."Brian crouched down beside her. "We have to be very careful with him, Emma. He's so helpless, you see.""I won't let anything happen to him, not ever.
- 35 "Kennedy. Robert Kennedy. They've killed him.""Oh my G.o.d. Oh sweet G.o.d." She could only stand and stare, horrified.She remembered when the American president had been killed, and the shocked world had mourned. Now his brother,
- 36 had to prove that Devastation wasn't a fluke, nor a pale imitation that was clinging to the coattails of groups like the Beatles and Rolling Stones. He had to prove to himself that the magic, which had dimmed so during that last year, would still be
- 37 Of the four, Stevie was the only one who had grown up with real money, in a true house with a garden and two live-in servants. He was used to the finer things, expected them and was easily bored with them. He'd fallen in love with the guitar, and had
- 38 On tour, Emma had begun to see them as a unit, like a body with four heads. The picture that made in her mind made her laugh to herself, but it seemed a true one. Today, they argued, and swore, joked or just sat silently during playbacks. She didn't
- 39 He wanted, needed, to recapture that towering high of excitement when success had been new, when the band, the unit of them, had been like one electric force smas.h.i.+ng through the world of music and public recognition. Over the past year, he had sensed
- 40 pleased him to have it jingling in his pocket.He hadn't grown up as poor as Johnno and Brian, but he'd been a long way from knowing the comforts of Stevie's childhood.Now they were on their way to Texas. Another festival in a year crammed w
- 41 veins, but he was a prince. No matter how careful Bev was, the paparazzi managed to snap new pictures of him on a weekly basis. And the fans clamored for more.They sent him truckloads of toys which Bev meticulously s.h.i.+pped off to hospitals and orphana
- 42 felt for Brian paled beside the love she felt for her son. He gave back without even knowing he was giving. It was simply there, a hug, a kiss, or a smile. Always at the right time. He was the best and brightest part of her life."Here now, go help yo
- 43 He scooped her up, planting a noisy kiss on her cheek before sweeping his free atm around Darren. "Give us a big one," he told Darren, then staggered as the boy pressed a hard, wet kiss on his chin. Hefting them both, Brian stepped around the wh
- 44 They'd come a long way from a two-room flat with a single creaky bed.They owned a pair of homes now, in two countries, but the s.e.x was as strong and sweet as it had been when he had had nothing in his pockets but desperate hopes and s.h.i.+ny dream
- 45 their first demo six years before. It had been a little rough, a little raw, and exactly the right sound for its time. He had already managed two other groups to solid record contracts, but Devastation had been his chance'for glory.He had needed them
- 46 It had been fortunate that the business with Emma hadn't set them back.Pete had worried about it, then had been delighted when the whole affair had generated sympathy, and record sales. True, Pete still had to cross swords with Jane Palmer from time
- 47 liked, and the idea of New York appealed. "For the music and the statement.""You go for the statement." Stevie grinned. "I'll go for the naked birds.""We'll get Pete to fix it up. What do you say, Bev?" Sh
- 48 a waste of time."We have to say goodbye, don't we?" He put on a Jim! Hendrix alb.u.m because it reminded him that though the artist was dead, the music lived on. "Besides, once we're back in London, we're back to work in a bi
- 49 now, five years from now. It makes the idea of growing older pleasant somehow.""Rock stars don't get old." He frowned, and for the first time Bev heard a trace of sarcasm, or was it disillusionment, in his voice. "They could start
- 50 the tense muscles. "Just a change.""If we're not moving forward, we're moving back, don't you see?"But he knew she couldn't, and tried to put his feelings into more understandable words. "Maybe it's Pete p
- 51 didn't matter a d.a.m.n if Stevie screwed every woman on the continent, though he felt it lacked a certain finesse. It was the drugs, and the fact that Stevie was rapidly losing control over them, that concerned Johnno. He didn't care for the im
- 52 in case Emma had to use the bathroom during the night. She had a bad moment at the doorway, imagining the things that lurked in the shadowy corners. She wanted to stay in her room with the grinning Mickey.Then Darren let out a yawling cry.There was nothin
- 53 "Bri.""Hmm?""Who are all these people?"He laughed, nuzzling into her neck. "You've got me." The scent of her had him hardening. Moving to the sinuous beat of the Lennon/ McCartney number, he brought her agains
- 54 "What?""Move back." Gently Johnno eased him to his feet. "They need to have a look at her."Dazed, Brian watched the ambulance attendants move in and crouch over his daughter. "She must have fallen all the way down the s
- 55 "Lieutenant. It's Bester.""What the f.u.c.k do you want?" He knew he was safe using what Marge called the F word since his wife had her earplugs in."Sorry to wake you up, but we've got an incident. You know McAvoy, Brian
- 57 looked up into a sea of faces, a blur of color, all unrecognizable. His stomach clenched, then tried to heave itself Into his throat."Call an ambulance," he managed, then bent over her again."Don't move her." Bev's face was c
- 58 "Just call." He glanced back toward the waiting room. "I've got a son of my own, Doctor."EMMA Had TERRIBLE DREAms. She wanted to call out for her Dad, for her mum, but it was as though a hand were closed over her mouth, over her e
- 59 She started to put her arm around him, but it was weighed down with the white plaster cast. That had the fear bubbling quick again. She could hear in her mind the sound of that dry snap, the screaming pain that had followed.It hadn't been a dream-and
- 60 questioning as long as possible. Longer, after he'd scanned the police photos of little Darren McAvoy."Keep this as brief as possible." The doctor stood with Lou outside the door. "She's been given a mild sedative, but her mind is
- 61 That was a new one, and Lou noted it down.Thlking with Brian, then hearing Emma scream-finding her at the foot of the steps."People crowded around," she murmured. "Someone, I don't know who, called an ambulance. We didn't move her
- 63 "My mammy mam before Bev. Bev says there aren't any snakes at all, but she just doesn't see them.""And you saw the snakes the night you fell?""They tried to stop me from going to Darren when he cried.""Darren w
- 64 been able to stick it into a vein and put him soundly to sleep. Had they been going to carry him out the window? Would Brian McAvoy have gotten a call a few hours later demanding money for the boy's safe return?There would be no call now, no ransom.R
- 65 saying. And didn't want to. She preferred listening to the humming gra.s.s and the monotonous lowing of the cattle on the hill beyond the gravesite.Darren was to have his farm at last, in Ireland, though he would never ride a tractor or chase the laz
- 66 hilltop nearby she saw a man. He stood, overlooking the small grave and the grief, silently taking pictures.HE WOULD NEVER be the same, Brian thought as he drank steadily, a bottle of Irish whiskey on the table near his elbow. Nothing would ever be the sa
- 67 graceful. Why had he never noticed before?"It was a fine funeral," Liam said, groping. "Your mother'd be pleased you brought him here to lie with her." He poured, then thirstily downed three fingers.Outside the soft rain of Irelan
- 68 "That b.l.o.o.d.y music put a roof over your head.""Dad." With the stuffed dog clutched in her arms, Emma stood in the doorway, her eyes wide and frightened, her lower lip trembling. She had heard the angry voices, smelled the hot odor
- 69 been given. He'd pored over the forensic reports, then had gone back again and again to comb through Darren's room.More than two weeks after the murder, and Lou had absolutely nothing.For amateurs, they certainly covered their tracks, he thought
- 70 Michael s.h.i.+fted from foot to foot in his scruffy black sneakers. In the past few weeks "When I'm finished" had been his father's standard answer. "When will you be finished?""I don't know, but I'll be finis
- 71 looked at what had been done to Darren, the more certain he was that there were. "I don't know. I'm trying to find out. That's my job, to find out."Having a cop for a father had never stopped Michael from embracing the television
- 72 two months since that horrible night, and Brian was still in seclusion.He wondered if Brian knew that "Love Lost" was topping the singles charts and had gone gold. He wondered if it would matter to him.P.M. knew the police were no closer to find
- 73 "I was just thinking about Bri. I'm worried about him.""You're a good friend, honey." She played light, quick kisses over his face. "That's one of the things I love most about you."He drew her closer, as always
- 74 "I'll make you happy, Angie. Look, I know it can't be easy being married to someone who's part of what I'm part of. The tours and the fans and the press. But we can make something for ourselves, just the two of us, that's our
- 75 seemed to know how to behave around Brian, what questions to ask, what questions to avoid. "How's Bev?" he ventured."I don't know." Remembering his cigarette, Brian plucked. it out from among the b.u.t.ts. "She won'
- 76 boy on. Robert Blackpool. I think I mentioned him.""Yes. You said you had high hopes.""And so I do. You'd like his style, Bri, which is why I want you to let him recor. "On the Wing."$ Simple surprise had Brian pausing b
- 77 time to stop, Bev.""It's easy for you, isn't it?" She s.n.a.t.c.hed a blanket from the crib to press it to her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. "You can sit and drink and write your music as if nothing happened. It is so b.l.o.o.d.y easy for y
- 78 clinches that movie deal, she'll be out of our hair.""Smarmy little b.i.t.c.h. Did you see that rock she had P.M. spring for?"Johnno tilted his head and affected an upper-cla.s.s accent. "Too, too tacky, dearie.""Draw th
- 79 the sisters with the kind eyes and firm hands, back to morning prayers and grammar lessons.She glanced back as her father peeled into "Soldier Blues." It was another song about the war, its hard-edged lyrics set to a harderedged beat. She didn&#
- 81 moment he had mentioned the night her brother had died her eyes had gone blank and her body had stiffened. Instinct told him she had seen or heard something, but her memory of that night was already bluffed. It was peopled with monsters and snarling shado
- 82 "Yeah. Sure.""I guess she doesn't get to do that much.""What?""The little kid. Emma. I guess she doesn't get to go to McDonald's.""No." Lou ruffled his boy's hair. "I guess not.&qu
- 83 sketched of Mother Superior was worth a couple of hours scrubbing bathrooms.If it hadn't been for Marianne, she might have run away. Though where she would have run, she hadn't a clue.There was really only one place she wanted to go, and that wa
- 85 screenprinting T-s.h.i.+rts. But just what he would do was still a cloudy mystery.It was a little scary taking off the cap and gown. Like shedding his youth. He held them both in his hands as he scanned his room. It was cluttered with clothes, mementos, r
- 86 been in all the papers, and still cropped up from time to time, perhaps because the police had never solved the case.His father's case, Michael recalled.That had been the year Michael had been named MVP on his Little League team. And his father had m
- 87 watched her through binoculars, she pretended she was alone, or, better, with one of the groups of teenagers who haunted the beaches.She crested over a wave, enjoying the swells and the way her stomach seemed to dip with the motion. The roar of the sea wa
- 88 There were hands on her, and in her terror she fought them, beat at them as the water beat at her. It was the monster, the one who had smiled at her, the one who wanted to kill her as it had killed Darren. As an arm hooked around her throat, red b.a.l.l.s
- 89 around a friendly wave that sent them about their business."When my father hears about this, he'll never let me surf again.""Why does he have to hear about it?""He always does." She made a concentrated effort not to look at her bodyguards. "Everyb
- 90 McAvoy was different. She drummed up another smile as she got to her feet. He had saved her life. If seeing her father was the only payment she could make, then she would make it."I'd like a ride, if it's not too much trouble.""No big deal." He caug
- 91 thunderous chords, then an experimental noodling of notes, and the chords again. Emma took her board from him to prop it against the wall."They're back here." After a moment's hesitation, she took Michael's hand and led him down the wide white hallwa
- 93 Johnno pulled out his cigarettes, carelessly offering one to Michael. He took it, and the first pull of the strong, exotic smoke had his stomach bouncing. "So," Johnno asked, mildly amused, "do you plan to follow in your father's flat feet? Isn't tha
- 94 Marianne narrowed her eyes as she tapped her foot along with her latest Billy Joel alb.u.m. She was convinced he was right. Catholic girls did start much too late."Emma, you've had that ice on your ears for twenty minutes. You should have frostbite by n
- 95 for a while."When the door opened, both girls struggled up. But it wasn't Sister Immaculate. Teresa Louise Alcott, the bright and annoying girl from across the hall, popped in wearing her pink cotton robe and feather mules. "What's going on?""We're
- 96 "The blond lady in the glittery dress. Wow, I'd just die to have a dress like that. Jane Palmer. She's your mother, right?""Jane." She focused on the other woman now. The old fear came back, just as real, just as ripe as it had been ten years before
- 97 With a little squeal, Thresa sprang up. She didn't want to spoil her perfect record with a demerit. "Come over at ten, and I'll give you the notes. Then you can do it.""Fine."Teresa put her hands on her earlobes. "I can't wait." "Neither can I.
- 98 back into the wall.He was Stevie Nimmons. He was the greatest guitarist (Yf his generation. He was somebody. But they had put him in a cage like an animal. They had locked him up and walked away. Didn't they know who he was? What he'd made himself? He n
- 100 viciously angry. The next thing I knew I was plowing into her, for Darren, for myself And for Emma. A lot of nerve I have defending Emma after what I did to her.""No, we won't get into all that," she interrupted. "It's done now. I imagine Jane will
- 101 could always be, enough for him. With him, she would never have to spend nights wondering, worrying, aching. And she would never, never, feel that thrill of unity, of rightness, of belonging.She gave him all she could, arching up to him, opening for him,
- 102 She started to agree, then found that answer unclear as well. "No, because of me." She drew away, and pulling on a robe, got out of bed. "I can't let go, you see. I thought I had, I've wanted to, but I can't."She turned back, her face in shadows, h
- 103 the notebook were more than a dozen clippings, most of which had been pa.s.sed on to her by Teresa and other equally curious cla.s.smates.The first was of herself, and Michael, from the summer before. She smoothed it carefully, battled embarra.s.sed delig
- 104 knowing if the nuns found them and told her father, he would get that sad, hurtful look in his eyes. She didn't want to hurt him, but she couldn't forget.She read the stories through, through she could have recited them by heart by this time. Looking, s
- 105 The frigging doctors swilled their bourbon. He'd do a line if he felt like a line. He'd smoke some hash if he had a yen for it.And f.u.c.k them. f.u.c.k them all.He tore open the envelope. He was pleased that Emma had written him. He could think of no o
- 106 was a b.a.s.t.a.r.d, P.M. thought, and began to read.Dear P.M., I guess I'm supposed to say I'm sorry about your divorce, but I'm not. I didn't like Angie. The sisters say that divorce is a sin but I think it's a bigger one to pretend you love someon
- 107 seniors were expelled yesterday. There's a rule about smoking in uniform so Karen Jones, Mary Alice Pleasinger, and Tomisina Gibralti stripped down to their slips in the locker room and lit up. Most of the girls think it was cool, but Mother Superior doe