Places Where Secrets Hide

By Cheryl T. Long

Five childhood friends.
One horrific fire.
Who is to blame?
On a summer night, Shirley, Candice, Dee, Angelika, and Jessica's lives are shattered as an accidental fire breaks out at a house party. But was the fire an accident? They hide a secret that, over time, will prove to threaten and change their lives forever.
Years have passed since that fatal summer night. Now, grown women, they have moved on in their way, but when a mysterious person begins sending threatening messages about the fire, they find themselves drawn back to one another's lives.

Their only salvation may lie in confronting the truth of the past and confronting their struggles.

But are there some secrets that should remain buried ?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cheryl T. Long
• Release date: Oct 25, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201087227

Book preview

Acknowledgments

First and foremost I would like to thank God. In the course of putting this book together, I appreciated how true this gift of writing is for me. You’ve given me the power to believe in my passion and follow my dreams. I could never have done this without the faith I have in you, the Almighty.

To my Mom and Dad Elizabeth and Kenneth: I can barely find the words to express all the wisdom, love and support you've given me. You are my #1fans, and for that, I am eternally grateful.

To my children, Devon, Anjanae, Shinera and Robyn: You are the best thing that I have ever done in my life! You welcomed me into motherhood, and I am so grateful for all of you. Mommy loves you more than you will ever know and my writing is proof of the beauty I see whenever I look into your eyes, know this!

To my husband Bryan: thanks for all the encouragement and love you've given me through the years. Thanks for all the coffee runs early in the morning before you went to work. You're the best and I love you!

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Roots

SHIRLEY

ANGELIKA

CANDICE

JESSICA

DEE

DIS-ILLUSION

SHIRLEY

ANGELIKA

CANDICE

JESSICA

DEE

REGRETS

SHIRLEY

ANGELIKA

CANDICE

DEE

JESSICA

SHIRLEY

DEE

NOSTALGIA

SHIRLEY

ANGELIKA

CANDICE

JESSICA

DEE

HEALING

JESSICA

CANDICE

DEE

JESSICA

SHIRLEY

JESSICA

ANGELIKA

DEE

SHIRLEY

DEE

JESSICA

ANGELIKA

RESURRECTION

SHIRLEY

CANDICE

ANGELIKA

JESSICA

DEE

SHIRLEY

CANDICE

ANGELIKA

JESSICA

DEE

CLOSURE

SHIRLEY

CANDICE

ANGELIKA

JESSICA

DEE

SHIRLEY, CANDICE, DEE, ANGELIKA AND JESSICA are five childhood friends that have to find a way to live through their trauma and heal together.

Roots

SHIRLEY

Honey.

Shirley looked away from her computer and looked at her mother, who stood in the doorway with a laundry basket.

Angelika’s here looking for you. She didn’t want to come in, and she looks quite upset.

The look on her mother’s face prompted Shirley to shut down the computer and hurry out to meet her friend.

It was barely noon on Saturday, and she knew that Angelika’s cheerleading practice didn’t end for another hour. Besides, it was Angelika.

She always stayed back for personal practice after everyone else had left.

Shirley, we need to get to Dee’s house. I think her mother is getting bailed out of jail after all, and they’re moving away!

Shirley could barely focus or hold the gaze of her tall, brunette Puerto Rican friend. Angelika wasn’t looking as badass as she usually appeared. She wore a telltale frown, and shadows darkened her eyes. Shirley! Okay, let me get my cell phone and come with you. Shirley ran to her room, grabbed her cell phone, and caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. She spotted two strawberry blonde ponytail puffs, braces, and dimples. Angel, as Shirley affectionately called her, are you sure about this? Shirley tried to ask, but Angelika’s expression was closed off. 

Shirley kept her mouth shut as they trekked down the road to Dee’s house, her thoughts rioting unpleasantly in her head. It is a rare incidence as Shirley was normally the problem fixer of the bunch.

A white moving van stood in front of the small bungalow where a great portion of her childhood had been spent.

Dee came out right then, with Candice and Jessica, who held a box in their hands. Dee’s smile disappeared from her face when she spotted Shirley.

What is she doing here? she asked, glaring at Angelika.

Shirley looked down at her feet. She shouldn’t have come. She had just wanted to see Dee before she left Hunting Park forever.

Come on, Dee. We’ve spoken about this. Calm down, okay? Candice reassured, dumping the box in the back of the van.

Candice was the second oldest of the girls. She and Angelika were like second mothers to Dee. Candice, a fair-skinned beauty with chestnut-colored, stood in front of Dee with her hands on her hips with an intense stare.

On the other hand, Jessica wrapped her arms around Dee and shunned Shirley away with her big chocolate brown eyes. Jessica was closer in age to Dee, and they shared a closer bond than the rest of the girls.

Shirley didn’t look up, but she could feel Dee’s burning stare.

Tears prickled at the back of her lids, and before they could stream down her face, she turned and headed toward the house.

Shirley!

She ignored Candice and Angelika’s calls and hurried towards her house.

Shirley, you know she’s still raw about everything that happened. Come on, stop, okay?

She stopped and turned to Angelika, who had her hands on her knees, panting from running after Shirley.

Leave me alone, Angel. I understand everything as I should.

Shirley, don’t let Dee get to you. It’s been four months now, and we all still don’t feel right, Angelika shouted, her tone tinged with a little irritation.

Shirley crossed the short steps to the front porch of her house and plopped on a long patio chair. A few seconds later, she burst into tears.

Dee would never forgive her.

It didn’t matter that they’d been friends since third grade. It wouldn’t matter that they had celebrated birthdays together and frolicked around the neighborhood with their group of friends, terrorizing the boys.

Alright, stop that now, Shirley. You need to stop crying and focus on the fact that it might be a while before we see Dee again. You are going to miss her as much as the rest of us, so we need to make use of the short time we have together, Angelika said in a softer tone, sitting down next to her.

Shirley didn’t know how to feel.

She doesn’t want to be around me. I’ve tried apologizing so many times, but she doesn’t want to hear it, Shirley whispered after some time.

Angelika smiled in her usual assuring manner. Then you hang around her until she wants to talk. You know how Dee is; she’ll come around eventually.

But Dee never did, not that day or in the days after.

Dee was always the stubborn one, probably because she was the youngest. The youngest and the wildest of the group always full of trouble. People would always underestimate her because of her thin frame and short stature.

It wasn’t till five years later that they were able to have a normal conversation.

If you called speaking once or twice a month normal.

Shirley Pilcher tossed the last picture frame into a cardboard box full of memorabilia from her childhood and placed it with the rest of the boxes.

She couldn’t afford to take a train ride deeper into the past at this moment.

It was too expensive and draining, and there was still a lot for her to do.

She still hadn’t assembled a good number of her things for the big move in two days.

It was crazy, she knew.

Hell, everyone wasted no time in letting her know just how crazy she was to be moving in with a man she’d barely known in a year.

It was highly illogical and insensitively close to the death of her husband.

William had been the only love of her life and the one who’d loosened the tight, painful straps of the past from around her body. Something her college sweetheart and husband of two years, Sam, hadn’t been able to do.

Unlike Sam, who had been the same age as she was, William had been far older at forty. They’d met at a party on a yacht hosted by a mutual friend. Shirley hadn’t been able to take her eyes off him or get over how he stared at her like an anchor, waiting to help steady her just a bit.

It hadn’t been too hard after that.

Four conversations later, she fell crazily and irrevocably in love with him.

William saw past the shiny cover and smiling facade. He saw past her love for socializing and partying to the hidden potentials she possessed deep down. William saw, admired, and encouraged her writing. He was the one who’d given her the courage to keep submitting her work even after the multitude of rejection letters piling up on their coffee table.

When the golden letter had finally arrived, he’d gathered her into his arms and brushed away her tears. William had always believed in her. It wasn’t much of a surprise to him that her book had finally been approved.

Shirley had finally gotten all her manuscripts published in the next years and still couldn’t believe that she was the bestselling author, Shirley Smith-Pilcher. Those were the best years of her life. The years spent with William, loving and taking care of him as a wife, paid off. He had always reciprocated her efforts, doubly and with great tenderness.

But that was until he changed abruptly. After trying to make love one evening and William couldn’t get it up, they both shrouded it off as he was tired. But as time went on, it keeps happening, leaving them both devastated. William had a few health issues but was otherwise healthy, and Shirley always made sure he took herbs to combat the negatives effects of the medication he was taking. Williams was very embarrassed and didn’t want to seek any medical help. He didn’t want to sleep with her anymore. He wanted her to go out and find someone younger. Someone who could satisfy her.

Shirley hadn’t taken that very well. They’d quarreled ceaselessly about it until he’d finally asked her for a divorce.

It had been so crazy and unexpected.

She hadn’t been anywhere ready to honor his request and was ready to spend her time letting him know she loved him and no one else would do.

But then, tragedy had struck.

It wasn’t like everyone had been expecting; it was a shock that left her on the floor in tears with her heart broken into many pieces.

William’s heart and kidneys had been bad for a while, and in the entirety of the twelve years they’d been together, they had only gotten worse. They hadn’t been able to function and keep him alive when he crashed his car into a tree and died two days later in the Intensive Care Unit.

Nine months ago, she’d buried her husband and best friend in the entire world. It had been a rollercoaster of pain and restoration of all the bitter memories that had been put to rest. The only good thing it had done was bring her back in contact with the girls, for the first time since they’d all moved away from Pennsylvania.

William’s death had been like a balm that’d soothed the drift that had settled on the clique; her childhood friends from Philadelphia.

They’d all come down for her. To help support and ease her pain. Every one of them, including Dee.

Shirley had never thought she’d find happiness like that ever again.

She had never believed she’d find someone who would love and take care of her the way William had done. She couldn’t understand his reasons for wanting her to be happy and live a full life without him. She’d been so happy and content with him and didn’t know why he hadn’t seen it.

What she didn’t know was that the love could never be replicated. The love they’d shared was something on a whole other level.

That was what Shirley had thought until Keith came into her life.

ANGELIKA

Angelika loosened her hold on the faux Armani suitcase and let it drop to the porch tiles.

She needed to calm down before ringing the doorbell and facing them all again.

Hell, how she hated to be back in this bullshit town.

To face it all over again.

Four years away in a New York college had been the perfect escape, and she’d truly believed it would be easier to deal with it after her family moved away from Hunting Park, Pennsylvania.

But that had been a dream she’d been the only one forcing.

Her parents wanted to wait till both their kids get back from college before they moved, mistakenly believed that they loved Hunting Park.

Well, here she finally was!

Her fist was barely against the knocker when the door was suddenly thrown open.

Oh, my baby girl. Don’t you eat anything? Angelika was enfolded in her mother’s ample bosom in the blink of an eye. Child, you are as thin as a rail, and your face is all thin now. What is it?

Angelika grabbed the suitcase with a long, suffering sigh.

Mamma, I am in great shape, and there is nothing wrong with looking a little rough around the edges. Her mother’s eyes looked doubtful, with hints of annoyance.

You just have to be so strong and hard-hearted and hold yourself from everyone and everything.

Angelika gritted her teeth and calmed herself mentally. She is used to her mother’s constant silent criticisms.

I am not trying to be strong, and joining the Navy isn’t to show everyone how tough I am, she spat.

Child, don’t take that...

It’s been four years, Carla; give the child a break.

Angelika sighed with relief as she turned to her father, who came forward with open arms and a welcoming smile. She had always been closer to him than her mother, who thought her every disagreement was a reflection of her bad parenting.

Hello, daddy. It’s been a while.

I know it was hard to defeat whatever was holding you down from coming back to this town. Welcome home, my soon-to-be lieutenant. Angelika smiled, this time without inhibitions. All through dinner, she marveled at how much she’d missed her family. She’d missed fishing with her dad, helping her brother Jeremy in his workshop.

It was hard to believe four years had passed since she left.

None of the cliques were in town anymore; they all had moved away in the past years.

She knew Candice, Jessica, and Shirley were in New York, but not Dee. She prided herself on keeping notes and knowing about everyone, but Dee had been quite the elusive one.

She knew nothing about Dee or her current location.

Her redhead friend had been the sweetest of the clique.

She had also been the most broken of them all.

Everything had been perfect till that night.

They’d all just been regular high school students with gigantic dreams, places to go, and a huge bucket list of things to do.

Shirley, the clique’s nerd with a shock of strawberry blonde curls, wanted to write best-selling contemporary novels. Her love for mingling beautiful things and proving the stereotypes about nerds wrong was second to none.

Angelika spoke to her whenever she could. She was doing well and working on a debut novel. She was also in love.

Jessica was currently working as a receptionist and pole dancer as a part-time job for extra cash. Though she’d been in a few mishaps with the law not too long ago, but she is doing okay.

The last time they spoke, Jessica had assured her she was going to get her shit together and work

Reviews for Places Where Secrets Hide

[Cheryl long · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Nothing can cage someone mentally and emotionally more than a dark secret. And these five friends have that load to carry wherever they go. The characters are just like you and me, relatable in so many ways. Everyday folk that has to contend with their past and find a way to live and not allow the past to dictate their future. Very enjoyable for everyone especially teens.