Or as if there were a shameful secret that everyone knows but me.

There is no shameful secret of any kind attached to your father.

Apparently I am to be hidden like a shameful secret.

In New York, it would have been a shameful secret.

"We are the shameful secret of the fireplace world," he said.

She hung her head and whispered the shameful secret: "He don't like to fight."

Fear not, little girl; your shameful secret is safe with me.

It would remain our shameful secret, taken to the grave with both of us.

"It is a shameful secret that will abide with me until my death."

And it comes about because of shameful secrets in a family situation.