The Secret She Kept

From NAACP Image Award–winning author ReShonda Tate Billingsley comes a powerful novel about love, faith, mental illness, and the devastating cost of hidden truths. Her storytelling “scores a direct hit” (Publishers Weekly), delivering emotionally resonant, soul-searching situations with unforgettable characters.

Lance Kingston has everything he’s worked for: a successful career as a Houston magazine executive and a beautiful new wife, high-powered attorney Tia Jiles. Their future seems bright—until Lance begins to realize that Tia has been keeping a dangerous secret for years. Since her teenage years, Tia has lived with a severe mental illness that can overtake her mind, transforming her into someone violent and unpredictable. Bipolar disorder. Schizophrenia. Or simply “crazy,” as Lance’s blunt grandmother warns him—reminding him that “crazy leaves clues.”

As Tia’s condition worsens, her family struggles to cope in different ways: a mother who believes prayer alone will heal her, doctors whose advice goes unheeded, and a husband desperate to hold his marriage together. When Lance learns that Tia is pregnant, the stakes rise even higher. Determined to protect his wife and unborn child, Lance is forced to confront painful questions about trust, sacrifice, faith, and how far love can truly go before it breaks.