Nothing is as it seems at first, and each of the characters is burdened with their own painful secrets.

He has a painful secret concerning his wife.

He has a painful secret that haunts him.

His aging good looks add to the sense that Maxim carries painful secrets about Rebecca's life and death.

Xuey could not reveal his painful secret, for the others would no longer have trusted him.

She draws an intimate portrait of a strong, independent woman who, over the course of a lifetime, has harbored a deep and painful secret.

And besides, it came too near to those painful secrets Deirdre had confided in him.

Kellen felt a flash of pride in his sister at keeping the painful secret so well.

She had never imagined Gabriel harbored such a painful secret.

How many have secrets so painful they cannot share them with the people they love?