Who to trust:

Life is full of secrets. It can be hard to understand which secrets to reveal and which secrets to hide.  In my book "If I Tell" by Janet Gurtler, the main character, Jasmine, is debating whether to tell her mother a huge secret. The secret could drastically change her mother's life and perspective on someone else. 

Jasmine is in a horrible position. Her best friend, Lacy, "made out" with her mother's boyfriend, Simon, at a party. To make it worse, Jasmine's mother is pregnant. If Jasmine tells her mother the secret, her mother's boyfriend might leave the new baby without a father, which is what happened to Jasmine.  Jasmine doesn't want a broken family but she also doesn't want a family of lies. If Jasmine doesn't tell her mother, she will always feel guilty watching her mother smile at the man who cheated on her.

Jasmine doesn't know if she should still be talking to Lacy or her mother's boyfriend after what they did. They were drunk, but being under the influence of alcohol its still not an excuse. Lacy feels guilty and sorry for Jasmine. Lacy apologized to Jasmine and tried to convince her not tell her mother about the incident. Lacy doesn't want Jasmine's mom to hate her, because she likes Jasmine's mother. Simon has no idea that Jasmine knows what happened, but he's starting to catch on.

Jasmine is caught in a mess that she didn't even create. Two close people in her life who she thought she could trust ruined everything. In life you need to be cautious of who you trust and what you do. Now Jasmine has to figure out how to avoid hurting her mother because of Lacy and Simon's actions. She's already losing everyone that she cares about because of a mistake. Now Jasmine needs to decide whether to tell the big secret, and whether to trust Lacy and Simon again.