Life is classified. There is always so much that goes unsaid.

That wasn't your mom in you—that was your dad.

Pain seared through me again-a hot, burning stab in my gut-and yet my body found strength I didn't know I had, correcting as I fell.

Teenage girls read in packs. It's true today, and it was true when I was a teen growing up in a small town in northeast Oklahoma.

Is Joe your father, Zach?' I don't know where the question came from, but it was out, and I couldn't take it back even if I'd wanted to. 'No.' Zach shook his head. 'I never knew my dad. I don't know anything about him.

And yet, she knew she could be.

"We're going to be okay." Here's the thing about being a spy: sometimes all you have are your lies. They protect your cover and keep your secrets, and right then I needed to believe that it was true even when all the facts said otherwise.