Wanda M. Morris is using her insider knowledge to shake up the genre.

Wanda M. Morris' debut novel was 13 years in the making.

She began the first draft ofAll Her Little Secretsin 2008 while working, and rising, in corporate law.

But Morris hopes her character’s (and her own) resilience shines through.

Stay tuned in the following weeks to read more ofAll Her Little Secrets.

But we were the only ones waiting for the 7:15 bus headed north.

She hadn’t gotten to the jeans Sam was wearing because they were about two inches above his ankles.

His yellow T-shirt still bore the cherry Popsicle stain from the day before.

And from the looks of it, he hadn’t combed his hair, either.

I held tight to the old brown cardboard suitcase Vera had borrowed from her friend Miss Toney.

There was no extra money for McDonald’s or Burger King along the way.

I was leaving Sam and Vera, the only people I loved.

But I had to go.

“Now, Ellie, you mind your lessons at school.

Take no blessing for granted.”

She patted the ponytail for good measure.

“You write me as often as you want.

I put some stamps in your suitcase.

Everything gon' be fine.”

Like everything she said was right or true.

She flashed that smile at me.

“Yes, ma’am.”

Sam hung at Vera’s side kicking the rubber toe of his canvas sneaker against the asphalt.

I sat my suitcase down and placed my lunch bag on top of it.

I grabbed his hand and pulled him off, out of Vera’s earshot.

“No more smoking cigarettes while I’m gone, okay?”

“I ain’t touched no cigarettes since Miss Vee caught me.

I’m not going through that again.”

Sam rolled his eyes.

“And you’ve got the option to’t be stealing from the grocery store, okay?

That was cute when you were little but you’re too big for that stuff.

you’re free to get into really big trouble, especially if Miss Vee finds out.”

He frowned and looked away.

“I just don’t understand why you got to leave.

Why can’t you go to school here?”

I plucked a piece of lint from Sam’s little Afro.

“I told you.

It’s a different kind of school.

You study thereandlive there.

And don’t worry.

You’ll be safe now.

There’s nobody around to hurt you anymore.”

A few seconds later, he wriggled from my grip and ran off to Birdie’s car.

I knew he was crying and didn’t want me to see.

The Greyhound bus pulled to a stop in front of us with a long loud hiss.

“Here it is,” Vera said.

“Now you got enough money in your bag for a taxicab once you get in Virginia.

I know that school got telephones so don’t pretend like they don’t.

You call me as soon as you get there.

Call collect, you hear me?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Vera leaned her large frame in and hugged me and the waterfall between us started.

Vera wasn’t much on crying, but anyone standing in that parking lot would have thought the opposite.

She finally let me go and pulled a couple tissues from her skirt pocket.

She wiped my face and handed the tissue to me.

I stared at Vera.

“I’m scared.”

She wrapped an arm around my waist.

“I know you are, honey bunny.

But it’s all gonna work out just fine.

Your momma was right about one thing.

You ain’t but fourteen, but you too big for this place.

This town ain’t equipped to hold somebody as smart and strong as you.

Now, get on that bus and don’t come back until the good Lord sends you back.

The driver trotted down the stairs of the bus and smiled at us.

He took my suitcase and tucked it underneath in the luggage compartment.

Vera gave me another hug.

“Go on now.”

I can handle this.

I located my little ragtag family out in the parking lot.

Sammy, Vera, and Birdie stood beside the car waving up at me.

And then I cried for a solid hour, straight across the GeorgiaSouth Carolina state line.

Chapter 1

Six forty-five in the morning was far too early for keeping secrets.

But Michael and I are lawyers and that’s what lawyers do.

I pressed the call button for the twentieth floor.

Morning meetings weren’t unusual for us.

But this one was particularly early and I’m not partial to sunrise secrets.

As the elevator rose, I closed my eyes for a moment and leaned into the wall.

6:45.I didn’t press him.

He did the same thing last week, a late-night meeting that lasted over an hour.

Only we didn’t talk about work.

We didn’t even have sex.

That time, he wanted me to sympathetically listen while he complained about his wife.

My better judgment told me I needed to end this.

So much time wasted.

Men are either intimidated by me or challenged to climb and conquer “Mt.

But Michael was different, or at least that’s what I told myself.

He matched me in every wayheight, intellect, and humor.

He was my equal except for that pesky little business of a wife and two kids.

I was stupid for sleeping with this man.

Vera and her friends had a saying:Never get your honey whereyou make your money.

The elevator pinged and the doors slid open onto the executive suite.

Everything was dark here, too.

The company’s reserve lighting system created a menacing tangle of shapes and shadows in the anteoffice.

A small pit-a-pat of fear slid through me as I flipped the light switch.

His assistant’s desk was neat and orderly, just the way she always left it.

I tapped lightly on his door.

“Michael, it’s me.

I opened the door and flipped on the lights.

The bright crimson spray of blood was everywhere.

Shock raced through me like a torpedo before landing in a hard knot at the pit of my stomach.

But I didn’t panic.

I didn’t utter a sound.

The air hung thick with the acrid, copper scent of blood.

An instant later, my mind clicked, as if someone else were inside my head, directing me.

I turned my eyes away from Michael’s lifeless body and the gun beside him.

I hated myself for what I was thinking.

Amid all this carnage, my first thoughts were to run, to leave without calling for help.

No one knows I’m here.

I slowly inched away from his body, careful not to touch anything.

The few shreds of conscience I had left warned me that to leave would be reprehensible.

This would be the last secret between Michael and me.

Excerpted from the bookALL HER LITTLE SECRETS, by Wanda M Morris.

Copyright 2021 by Wanda M. Morris.

From William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.