Dirty Little Secrets

Some skeletons in the closet are real. Just ask Grace McKinney, who is haunted, quite literally, by the sins of her past. A boy with wavy brown hair and vacant dark eyes would pop up unannounced to frightfully remind her that no matter where she went in this life, her dirty little secrets always rode shotgun.

This ghost bore gleeful witness to her slow suicide. At nineteen, Grace had already succumbed to alcohol and drug addiction, thanks mostly to her other, more human tormentor, Mike Beyer.

Mike, too, was haunted by the past. Instead of turning his abuse inward, he spread it to his wife, their children and of course, to Grace. He was determined to make everyone pay for the things he lost, and who better than a vulnerable teenage girl who would do anything to keep the past secret from her father? And indeed it was her father that Mike had good reason to hate, and a real desire to punish.

Reverend Ezekiel McKinney ruled his home and his church with an iron fist. Any congregant who dared to step out of line would be outed and humiliated and forced to make a public choice - God, or sin. And Zeke knew that choice all too well because he was doing a lifetime penance for his own crimes of passion.

His wife, Olivia, shared the burden of this secret, as well as the penance. She knew her place, and expected her daughter to also tow the line without complaint. That Grace had strayed so far down the wrong path was a source of continual embarrassment for the church and for Olivia herself. She was ready to do anything to set the course straight again.

These fragile houses of cards began to crumble when a strange, exotic beauty named Lauren Olsen came into Grace's life the minute she needed her most – the day she accidentally killed Mike's pregnant wife, Debbie. It will be the first domino to fall that unearths all the dirty little secrets that had haunted them all.

"Dirty Little Secrets" is a story that takes an unflinching look at the shame and self-destruction caused by sexual abuse and religious extremism. Though this 19-year old's dramatic coming of age, we are reminded that we are born with a very strong will to survive despite our darkest circumstances.