Secrets of the Morning

"Secrets of the Morning" is a novel written by V. C. Andrews in 1991. It is the second novel in the Cutler series.

Plot

This novel is about a young girl named Dawn Cutler who has just arrived to New York City from her family’s hotel, Cutler's Cove, located in Virginia. Her family is filled with untrustworthy liars who only care for themselves. Her sister Clara Sue is very jealous of Dawn, her brother Phillip who has abused her sexually and her mother who is a dramatic hypochrondriac. To her surprise, her residency owner, Agnes, is very insecure and thinks poorly of her from a letter full of lies from her Grandmother whom despises her so much. Eventually Dawn earns Agnes' trust. There Dawn meets a very friendly roommate Trisha. Dawn and Trisha become the best of friends and they attend a music school, Bernhardt School For The Arts.

During Dawn's first year in Agnes residency she meets more of the other residents including: Mrs. Liddy, Arthur Garwood, The Beldock Twins, and Donald. Dawn is enrolled in speacial lessons with her piano teacher. A very famous opera singer, Michael Sutton is holding auditions to six people to be in his singing class. Dawn gets selected to be in his class and is very excited about her new class and her senior year at school. Dawn and her teacher have more than just a teacher-student relationship. Dawn loves Michael but feels like she’s betraying her first love Jimmy but she continues her relationship with Michael. To her surprise she finds out she’s pregnant.

Michael said that he would stay with her through everything, but he flees the country to London and Dawn mistakenly believes that he wants her to leave with him so she goes to his apartment and he’s not there she stays pregnant and penniless and then she thinks she sees Michael and runs across the street to him and out of nowhere a car runs her over which sends her flipping round and round. Suddenly Dawn wakes up in the hospital just awakened from her coma after four days. When she awakes her best friend Trisha is standing by her side taking care of her, but then has to leave. Dawn's doctor then tells her that surprisingly she didn’t fracture anything and that her baby is okay. Out of nowhere her grandmother appears and tells her she is going to move her to Upland Station with her sisters Miss Emily and lightminded Charlotte.

Miss Emily is very harsh to Dawn. They give her a little stuffy room with no windows and just enough candle wax just to last her one week. They remove all her clothing from her and just provide her with a night gown to where all the time and make do all the chores around the house. One night Dawn is having a terrible discussion with Miss Emily which results her to give birth after she stumbles.

After giving birth she saw her precious daughter and then she was taken away. Her dreadful Grandmother took her away from her and gave her for adoption without Dawn's knowledge. To her surprise Jimmy picks her up and she is very happy to see him but is worried about her baby. They get to the bottom of finding her daughter starting with Grandmother Cutler. To their shock Grandmother Cutler had just suffered a deadly stroke and is in the hospital. Dawn and Jimmy go see her to question her regarding the whereabouts of Dawn;s baby. They find out that Grandmother Cutler is paralyzed from her left side but they see her for only five minutes and Dawn starts asking her “Where’s my baby?” Grandmother Cutler just murmurs so Dawn gets closer to her and listens her grandmother tells her “ You’re my curse.” And then dies.

Dawn finds getting her baby and gets forty percent of her family’s fortune left by her Grandfather's will and testament. To the final shocking truth she finds out that her real father is her Grandfather Cutler.

External links

* [http://www.completevca.com The Complete V. C. Andrews]