PRAISE FOR COLLEEN HOOVER
“What a glorious and touching read, a forever keeper. The kind of book that
gets handed down.”
—
USA Today on
It Ends with Us
“
Confess, by Colleen Hoover, is a beautiful and devastating story that will
make you feel so much.”
—
Guardian
“
It Ends with Us tackles [a] difficult subject . . . with romantic tenderness
and emotional heft. The relationships are portrayed with compassion and
honesty, and the author’s note at the end that explains Hoover’s personal
connection to the subject matter is a must-read. Packed with riveting drama
and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse
—and the strength of the survivors.”
—
Kirkus, starred review
“Hoover joins the ranks of such luminaries as Jennifer Weiner and Jojo
Moyes, with a dash of Gillian Flynn. Sure to please a plethora of readers.”
—
Library Journal,
starred review, for
November 9
“Hoover builds a terrific new-adult world here with two people growing in
their careers and discovering mature love.”
—
Booklist, starred review, for
Ugly Love
“Betrayals, secrets, and shifting family loyalties keep the pages turning in
this excellent contemporary from Hoover . . . This is Hoover at her very
best.”
—
Publishers Weekly, starred review, for
Regretting You
OTHER TITLES BY COLLEEN HOOVER
Layla
Heart Bones
Regretting You
Verity
All Your Perfects
Without Merit
Too Late
It Ends with Us
November 9
Confess
Ugly Love
Hopeless
Losing Hope
Finding Cinderella: A Novella
M
AYBE
S
OMEDAY
S
ERIES
Maybe Someday
Maybe Not: A Novella
Maybe Now
S
LAMMED
S
ERIES
Slammed
Point
of Retreat
This Girl
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events,
and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used
fictitiously.
Text copyright © 2022 by Colleen Hoover
All rights reserved.
No part
of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, without express written permission
of the publisher.
Published by Montlake, Seattle
www.apub.com
Amazon,
the Amazon logo, and Montlake are trademarks of
Amazon.com
,
Inc., or its affiliates.
ISBN-13: 9781542025607
ISBN-10: 1542025605
Cover design by Caroline Teagle Johnson
CHAPTER ONE
KENNA
There’s a small wooden cross staked into the ground on the side of the road
with the date of his death written on it.
Scotty would hate it. I bet his mother put it there.
“Can you pull over?”
The driver slows down and brings the cab to a stop. I get out and walk
back to where the cross is. I shake it side to
side until the dirt loosens
around it, and then I pull it out of the ground.
Did he die in this very spot? Or did he die in the road?
I didn’t pay attention to the details during the pretrial. When I heard he
had crawled several yards away from the car, I started humming so I
wouldn’t hear anything else the prosecutor said. Then, to avoid having to sit
through details if the case went to trial, I pleaded guilty.
Because
technically, I was.
I may not have killed him with my actions, but I definitely killed him
with my inaction.