Necessary Lies (44 page)

Meanwhile, although some of the victims are only in their fifties, many are elderly and ill. As of this writing, the foundation continues trying to identify people who were sterilized without their knowledge or understanding. It’s estimated that about eighteen hundred are still living. So far, about one hundred and fifty have come forward.

I chose not to sensationalize the Eugenics Program in
Necessary Lies
. I easily could have. Many of the cases border on the incomprehensible, such as a twelve-year-old girl sterilized because she was overly interested in boys and hard to control at home, or the teenaged girl who was molested by her father, who signed his consent for her sterilization himself. Instead, Ivy’s and Mary Ella’s and Lita’s cases were more the norm, and I think by making that point, all the more horrific.

Diane Chamberlain
Raleigh, North Carolina
2012

A
LSO BY
D
IANE
C
HAMBERLAIN

The Good Father

The Midwife’s Confession

The Lies We Told

Secrets She Left Behind

Before the Storm

The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes

The Bay at Midnight

Her Mother’s Shadow

The Journey Home
(anthology)

Kiss River

The Courage Tree

Keeper of the Light

Cypress Point/The Shadow Wife

Summer’s Child

Breaking the Silence

The Escape Artist

Reflection

Brass Ring

Lovers and Strangers

Fire and Rain

Private Relations

Secret Lives

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

DIANE CHAMBERLAIN is the international bestselling author of twenty-two novels. She lives in North Carolina with her partner, photographer John Pagliuca, and her shelties, Keeper and Cole. Visit her online at
www.dianechamberlain.com
.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

NECESSARY LIES.
Copyright © 2013 by Diane Chamberlain Books, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

www.stmartins.com

The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

Chamberlain, Diane, 1950–

    Necessary lies / Diane Chamberlain. — 1st ed.

            p. cm

    ISBN 978-1-250-01069-8 (hardcover)

    ISBN 978-1-250-01070-4 (e-book)

  1.  Social workers—Fiction.   2.  Friendship—Fiction.   3.  North Carolina—Fiction.   4.  Domestic fiction.   I.  Title.

    PS3553.H2485N47 2013

    813'.54—dc23

2013013951

e-ISBN 9781250010704

First Edition: September 2013