Prologue

Everyone has secrets, secrets that make you feel insecure, embarrassing secrets, or secrets that make you fear that if they are disclosed, people will criticize you. Everyone has issues. You can confront whatever, no matter how big or little. But you will not.

That was not the case with Veronica Valdez. A little, adorable, troublesome brother; wonderful parents; lovely friends; and an excellent school. This was her life in Denver, her hometown where she had spent the previous 11 years of her life. It was the place where she was born.

Until she moved to Barbados, that is. Her four years in Barbados were always the most difficult years of her life.

The hardest parts of her life were the last six months she spent in Barbados and the first six months she spent in Paris. A state of despair and depression set in for her. As her parents thought, she gradually recovered. She did seem rather joyful after that.

What more could any parent want than their children's euphoria? Everyone assumed her to be happier than she had ever been.

But was it really the truth? Vera's history stabbed her heart every single day. She would never be able to move on until she discovered the cause of everything. Barbados had become a spot in Vera's heart where she prayed, she would never have to return. But everything changed one day— no, one night during a sleepover. A ridiculous game... It was presumably at this point that she realized how-

It Only Took a Dare