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To my Granny, who taught me that no woman needs to be what’s expected of her. I miss you.

acknowledgments

It makes sense to start with the person who gave me my first big break, so I have to thank my agent, Laura Rennert. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: You are amazing! And to Taryn Fagerness as well, for being such a brilliant negotiator on foreign soil .  .  . thank you for taking The Pledge to so many countries I’ve never been.

Closer to home, I’m so fortunate to have such an incredible team at Simon & Schuster, starting with my amazing editor, Ruta Rimas, who, given the chance, would probably have edited this sentence to make it better. Thank you not only for your expert advice, but for being such a great supporter of my books! I’d also like to thank Anna McKean and Chrissy Noh for all their publicity and marketing mojo, and Justin Chanda for allowing me to be a part of the S&S family.

For my incredible covers, I have to thank Ugla Hauksdóttir, whose photography is amazing, and who, fortunately, posted some of her images online for my cover designer to find. To the gorgeous Anna þóra Alfredsdóttir who makes “Charlie” look not only stunning but fierce on this cover. And to the brilliant Michael McCartney, I can’t thank you enough for finding Ugla’s images in the first place, and then turning them into the most amazing covers!

I’m also incredibly grateful to Carrie Ryan and Margaret Stohl for their support of The Pledge. It means a lot to have the respect of your peers, but it means even more when you can count those people among your friends.

To the Debs, who’ve continued to be there through the ups and the downs of publication. To Erin Gross for all the work you do on both The Pledge and the Body Finder novels’ fan sites .  .  . you rock! To Shelli Johannes Wells for letting me lean on you—and call you almost daily—to vent, brainstorm, and critique my (sketchy) first drafts. To Tammy Everton for helping me with names, even when I need them to be .  .  . unusual. And to Madeline and Molly, just because I thought it would be fun to put your names in my book.

To all of my friends and neighbors who’ve come out to support me again and again and again .  .  . I feel blessed to have you all in my life!