our second task is here ! and it’s time to talk about all of those secrets your characters are trying so hard to keep from coming out. we have compiled a list with questions designed to give everyone a better understanding of the secrets and why it’s important for your character that no one finds out about them. feel free to answer these any way you want, it could be done in character or you could answer them for your character, or even a mix of both ! the answers can be as short or as long as you want, but make sure they’re enough to give us more insight into the secret. when posting your task, make sure you tag it with hillston.task as well as hillston.task02 so we can keep track of them. have fun and don’t worry rita won’t see these !
1. what is your biggest secret?
2. how long have you been keeping this secret?
3. does anyone know about it? if so, did you tell them or did they find out on their own?
4. why is it so important that it’s kept a secret?
5. what do you think would happen to you if it got exposed?
6. are you scared of what your friends and family would think of you if it did?
7. would you change what you’ve done/you’re doing?
8. do you think your life would be different if you did? how?
9. what would you do if your secret got exposed?
10. how far would you go to keep that from happening?
11. do you believe enmity knows about it? if so, how do you think they found out?
i hope you find a way to be yourself someday --- --- a zara calloway task.
one. what is your biggest secret?
obviously, that she’s not who she fucking says she is --- and is in fact, a con woman.
zara was actually born zoya liliya, last name taken from her mother --- a direct spit into the fact of the patronymic naming customs of russian culture. it’s been said that there was a horrible blizzard the night zoya was born, foretelling, somewhat, of her personality. she’s had many names over the years: andy, valeria, elizabeth, deborah, diana... the list goes on really. zara’s only the most recent one.
two. how long have you been keeping this secret?
zara’s been a con-woman for as long as she can remember. at first it was crying in supermarkets with her mother, as a baby, so they could buy groceries --- then it was running insurance scams, now it’s posing as a billionaire’s daughter in order to gain access to his fortune.
three. does anyone know about it? if so, did you tell them or did they find out on their own?
the only person who knows is zara’s mother, veronica. that being said, zara does consider the idea of telling isaac, the only other person she trusts nearly as much as her mother. it won’t happen, but she thinks about it.
four. why is it so important that it’s kept a secret?
mostly, because zara doesn’t want to go to prison. she doesn’t want her mother to go to prison. she can’t begin to explain how much she doesn’t wanna go to prison. zara’s already had a few brushes with the law and with death, --- she’s not exactly jumping at the bit to experience all of that over again.
five. what do you think would happen to you if it got exposed?
arrested. thrown in jail. sent back to russia. it’s a fine line really --- and largely, depends on the judge she gets for her case.
six. are you scared of what your friends and family would think of you if it did?
zara would like to claim that she isn’t scared of anything, at all --- but in fact, yes. yes, she’s entirely scared. it mainly boils down to three people: what would isaac, troy and scarlet think if the truth was to come out? she’s convinced herself that they’d hate her, that they’d think the friendship, the love and the relationships they’ve built was just a lie: when in reality, it’s the most real thing zara’s ever felt.
seven. would you change what you’ve done/you’re doing?
and that’s the rub, of course: zara wouldn’t. at all. in the slightest. when they came from russia, she and veronica had nothing. n o t h i n g. they were dirt poor who spoke a little english and no one was willing to help them out in the slightest. zara watched, as american capitalism and excess took a hold of people and never let them go --- she knew, deep down, she deserved better. that she was owed better.
so no. zara wouldn’t change any of it. because rich people are never going to miss the money --- and she’d rather die than go back to starving on the streets.
eight. do you think your life would be different if you did? how?
oh... yes. zara’s life would be incredibly different. she’d be a lot less scarred up, from stab wounds and bullet holes. she’d probably be more bitter, a rare feat considering how bad it currently is. she’d be angrier, meaner, would probably be the worst kind of high school teacher you could find --- because she’d be filled to the brim with resentment.
that, or --- she would have headed back to russia, soon as she turned eighteen, to try and find her father. she has questions, dammit.
nine. what would you do if your secret got exposed?
die, probably. disappear for a good few months. it’s similar to “i blew all my covers. i gotta go figure out a new one.” she’d need to learn how to live in plain sight, as opposed to pretending how to be someone else.
ten. how far would you go to keep that from happening?
kill someone. no question.
eleven. do you believe enmity knows about it? if so, how do you think they found out?
no. no one knows. people can assume all they like, but zara’s a master at this. it’s a careful art --- and she’s constructed her current role that anyone who dares to question her, looks merely jealous, envious or like a joke: a fine little trick she learnt from her mother, back in the day.
and i'm back to my ways 'cause i'm heartless — — a evan sinclair task.
one. what is your biggest secret?
you wouldn’t know it just by looking at him: what with the cars, the mansion, the three perfect kids and devoted girlfriend by his side; a conglomerate corporation that consistently posts profits instead of losses. but seperate to his perfect, carefully constructed life: is a criminal empire of epic proportions.
approached by an old family friend at one stage, he spoke of a lucrative industry that was currently untapped. he’d cut evan in on the profits, but all he had to do was look the other way. evan happily did so. from there, it only grew: now, it encompasses drug import and exports, illegal gambling dens; protection rackets, loan sharking. name it, and evan and his empire, have probably had a hand it in at some point.
two. how long have you been keeping this secret?
it started roughly a year after emily left the family, making it now, seventeen years or so.
three. does anyone know about it? if so, did you tell them or did they find out on their own?
family wise, only evan. --- outside of that? the people involved in his business. less than savoury characters who have proven their loyalty over and over again, and who evan doesn’t trust with anything other than his criminal exports.
four. why is it so important that it’s kept a secret?
to be kept out of prison, mostly. evan would thrive in prison, of course, but he has no intentions of going. his family’s name, and it’s legacy, secondly. his family’s safety and sanity of his children --- who have already suffered so much and lost even more thanks to emily’s actions. evan won’t be someone who adds his name to that list.
evan’s crafted an image of himself for the world, and that image is true --- mostly. the rest of his is reserved for his criminal activities. it is messy, bloody, thankless work, but it’s something he takes a sick, twisted level of pride in.
five. what do you think would happen to you if it got exposed?
for sure, evan would be arrested, probably be denied bail and held for the biggest criminal trial of the century. it wouldn’t be pretty --- evan would quite literally loose his everything. his girlfriend, his children, his company. his friends, his life, even. the worst case scenario is the only scenario.
six. are you scared of what your friends and family would think of you if it did?
i don’t think evan’s... scared... so much as he is worried. he adores his children, and he knows they adore him. there’s a level of fierce devotion between all of the sinclairs, especially in how they closed ranks after emily left. he worries what will change and how it will change if it all comes to light.
more than that, he worries what vera --- and their unborn child --- will think when it comes to light. he’s incresingly aware that vera’s got an image of her in his head, and keeping secrets is going to harm what they have in the long run. ( it’s especially going to harm the ring he keeps in his safe, waiting for the right moment to ask. )
seven. would you change what you’ve done/you’re doing?
no. he wouldn’t. there was a black anger in evan after emily left --- and he never quite dealt with it in a healthy way. he was the perfect, doting dad at home; but when it came time to go to the office, he was self-destructive and depressed, developing a drinking problem and caring little if his life went up in smoke.
he needed an outlet and he needed to do something --- to prove to himself just that he could. but also, to prove emily right. if evan was so horrible that she was forced to leave and abandon their children, well. he’d make it come true.
eight. do you think your life would be different if you did? how?
i don’t know if evan would have left the kids, per-say. he’s not built for that, and when you’re apart of his family, it stays that way for life. but i think there would have been a period where evan wouldn’t have been able to take care of the kids, lest he cause them serious emotional harm, or more problems then they already had.
he would have probably turned out more like his own father --- bitter and twisted, distant and emotionally cold. laughing in the face of their dreams and their pride. the kids would have come to be a source of resentment for him, reminding him of the day emily left and the day he was never good enough. and he certainly wouldn’t have vera and the family they’re building together.
nine. what would you do if your secret got exposed?
evan would go to his children first, because sinclairs for fucking life. he’d explain the situation, why it is what it is; how it happened, every single last detail. he’d expect the kids to turn their backs on him, and evan, would... honestly understand. he’d do the same with vera, and hope she’d stay. everyone else could have whatever the media says about him.
from there, evan would arm himself with lawyers --- and hope for the goddamn best.
ten. how far would you go to keep that from happening?
evan’s already killed people who threatened to expose him; who threatened to harm his children or tell them the truth. he’s bribed cops and politicians to look the other way. in short, there isn’t anything he wouldn’t do to keep the truth from seeing the light.
eleven. do you believe enmity knows about it? if so, how do you think they found out?
no. enmity doesn’t know. enmity can’t know, because there’s a severe culture of secrecy around evan’s activities and how they operate.
if you'd like to reach me, leave me alone — — a malika simmons task.
one. what is your biggest secret?
mal doesn’t actually remember her secret --- part and parcel of grieving for your ex-boyfriend and the relationship you once had, coupled with a shit ton of tequila... well. it makes for a shitty memory.
that being said, mal’s biggest secret is that in vegas, she drunkenly married seth’s little sister, maddie. the two were partying, and for mal it was a comfort to see such a familiar face. the two woke up in bed together: and to this day, mal just assumes that’s all that happened.
two. how long have you been keeping this secret?
the secret’s been with her for about two or so years now, give or take a couple weeks.
three. does anyone know about it? if so, did you tell them or did they find out on their own?
no. no one knows. or, well, the justice of the peace that married them, knows --- along with the two witnesses to make it legally binding. anyone else? not so much. being miles from vegas now means mal’s even further from her secret.
four. why is it so important that it’s kept a secret?
like most things in malika’s life these days --- it comes down to seth, and by extension, the jameson family. she’s always been aware her fate was tied to them the minute she signed on the dotted line, but even this is too much for her. it’s bad enough she’s holding a torch for seth, two years later: being married to his baby sister isn’t pretty.
five. what do you think would happen to you if it got exposed?
if malika was exposed, it’d mostly be awkward; erase any new progress she’s made in her career trying to distance herself from the jameson’s. it would remind everyone that for a year, she was only half of seth’s personality --- and this time, she’s jumped to his sister.
six. are you scared of what your friends and family would think of you if it did?
not... really? mostly, malika’s going to be embarrassed, and feel like an idiot. she knows her siblings and her parents will love her no matter what --- she just wishes she could save them the pain of another story about her ruining the jameson legacy.
seven. would you change what you’ve done/you’re doing?
malika would, in a heartbeat. maddie’s a doll, but the only jameson she’s ever had eyes for is seth. even outside of that: malika just wants a fresh start, and to have something which wasn’t bought with seth’s money, his name and his legacy. she’s aware that she signed on for this: but it still hurts.
eight. do you think your life would be different if you did? how?
she’d feel a sense of relief. an ability to divorce herself from the jameson legacy. the thing no one ever tells you about NDA’s and PR agreements is that shit follows you forever --- even if you’re america’s it couple.
nine. what would you do if your secret got exposed?
laugh, frankly. and then find a lawyer.
ten. how far would you go to keep that from happening?
it’s hard to say, because mal isn’t aware of her secret; and on some level she doesn’t exactly care. it’s a dumb mistake she made while drunk, and is now forced to handle the stupid fallout of. that being said, to protect her family and her new career path: there’s very little she wouldn’t do.
eleven. do you believe enmity knows about it? if so, how do you think they found out
no. if enmity did, it wouldn’t be that hard to find --- the marriage is legal, and the documents aren’t that hard to find. it isn’t a secret malika and maddie partied in vegas. a little digging is all it’d take.
𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐤𝐞𝐩𝐭 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐭 , a leo sinclair task .
𝟏. 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐛𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐭?
LEO’S BIGGEST SECRET is an accident he was involved last year . it wasn’t the first time he left a party intoxicated or the first time he got behind the wheel in that condition , but it was the first time he crashed his car . he hit the other car on the side and after a few seconds of shock he reversed his car and left the scene without checking to see if anyone was injured ( or worse ) . he went straight home and hasn’t talked about what happened since that night .
𝟐. 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐤𝐞𝐞𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐭?
THE ACCIDENT HAPPENED last summer and he’s been keeping his secret for about ten months now .
AS SOON AS he got home , he found his father and told him what had happened . leo was too scared and confused and needed his dad to make things right and fix the mess he’d made . there’s a chance that his father has told other people , but leo isn’t aware of that . he tries not to think about that night as much as possible .
LEAVING THE SCENE of an accident is a criminal offense and there would be serious repercussions if the truth came out , that is enough of a reason to keep it a secret . there’s also the fact that if it comes out and people know about it and talk about it , it will make the whole thing more real . so far , he’s been doing a good job at pretending nothing happened and that wouldn’t be possible anymore . and then there’s the fact he would finally know what actually happened and sometimes that’s what worries him the most . he doesn’t want to find out he badly hurt someone or that he took someone’s life .
LEO DOESN’T KNOW if the accident had any victims , but at the very least he will be dealing with a misdemeanor . there would be charges and he’d have to deal with that and depending on how things go there would be fines to pay , maybe some social service . he does not consider any chance of doing jail time , though . and all that is only if there’s actually any proof of his guilt . mostly , he knows that whatever happens his dad will take care of things .
ONE HUNDRED PERCENT . his friends and his siblings know that he’s prone to do stupid things , but this is worse than anything he’s done before and he worries that they will look at him differently . at least the person whose opinion he values the most already knows . it would also ruin his good guy / fun guy reputation and he doesn’t want or need that .
YES . IF HE could go back and change how things happened he would in a heartbeat . he probably wouldn’t change leaving the scene , but he wouldn’t have gotten behind the wheel as drunk as he was and everything would have been avoided .
HIS LIFE WOULD be pretty much the same , but he wouldn’t have had dealt with the nightmares that plagued him the first weeks following the accident and he wouldn’t be worrying about the possibility of it coming out .
𝟗. 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐨 𝐢𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐭 𝐠𝐨𝐭 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐝?
FIRST , HE WOULD deny it until his last breath , but he would also get his dad’s lawyer on the phone just in case .
FAR , BUT NOT to the point of committing a crime . he would pay people to keep quiet without a second thought , maybe some blackmailing , or even pinning it on someone else , but it’s not like he’d kill anyone to keep this a secret .
LEO THINKS THEY don’t . he doesn’t think there’s any way this person , whoever they are , could know about something he’s only shared with his dad . there were no witnesses that he saw and he doesn’t think the other driver got his details or he’d have heard about it before ( unless his dad got to the driver and paid them off already , but he has no idea what his father did after he told him ) .
THE ONLY OTHER person who knows about the relationship is sam . they’ve agreed to keep it to themselves for now , and arthur has kept to his word . the person who caught them together and blackmailed them with footage , matthew echolls , only know they’ve slept together but not about the relationship .
ARTHUR’S MAIN CONCERN is and will always be his two kids . as much as he wants to let the whole world know how much he loves this woman , he’s not sure if his kids are ready for that change . they’ve been through a lot and have finally started to move past the loss of their mother ; he doesn’t want to risk the news of a new woman in his life to undo the healing that’s happened .
HE KNOWS THAT media outlets would have a field day with the information and would try to get as much detail as possible about sam . something he's dreading . but his biggest worry is how his kids would react to it . he doesn’t know what will happen there , but he’s expecting the worst and hoping for the best .
YES . IT’S THE only reason he’s still keeping it a secret . he is afraid that his kids will think that he is moving on too soon and that they will hate him for falling in love with someone else . at the end of the day , he’s worried that he’s going to hurt his kids and that’s always the last thing he wants to do .
NO . DESPITE ALL his worries , arthur would never break up with sam . he hasn’t felt this happy and this live in years and he knows it’s all due to her and the love they feel for each other . it’s gotten to a point where he can’t imagine life without the woman , and he doesn’t want to think about it either .
YES . IT WAS his relationship with sam ( even before they were dating ) that brought him out of the depressive stage he was after his wife’s passing . if he were to put an end to his relationship , he would be right back there. drinking too much , spending his days feeling sorry for himself , and lost . it wouldn’t be good for him , for his kids or anyone else around him .
𝟗. 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐨 𝐢𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐭 𝐠𝐨𝐭 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐝?
THE FIRST THING he’d do would be talk to his kids , of course . he’d sit them down and try to explain himself and ask about how they felt about everything . he has no idea how that conversation would go , though .
NOT THAT FAR . there’s a big part of him that wouldn’t mind if the secret came out , actually . it would end the whole ‘ waiting for the right time ’ .
NO . THERE’S NO way enmity could know . sam and arthur have been very careful about their time together and mostly do it at their own houses when they know they’ll be alone or out of town . unless enmity has been following them , there is no way they could know .
𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐚 𝐟𝐚𝐢𝐫 / “ never give your secret to anyone, because if you can’t keep it to yourself, don’t expect others to.“
1. what is your biggest secret? vera’s secret is that she’s pregnant. 18 weeks currently.
2. how long have you been keeping this secret? she found out when she was three months along because she thought something may have been wrong. and oh boy did she get a surprise.
3. does anyone know about it? if so, did you tell them or did they find out on their own? her obgyn, tba, arthur, carina, lysander are the only ones that know her secret. and she told them about it.
4. why is it so important that it’s kept a secret? vera is someone that solely believes that life is often cruel, it’s why she was so hesitant to tell anyone that fear that something could go wrong. but sharing it nothing happened, and that has been a huge relief to her.
5. what do you think would happen to you if it got exposed? judgement. opinions are the things she guesses will happen. none of which bother her too much, she’s just not sure she’s ready for all of the opinions.
6. are you scared of what your friends and family would think of you if it did? no, vera doesn’t care much what her “family” thinks. she’s not even sure she plans on telling them. having them do to this baby what they did to her all those years ago. being apart of his/her life and then just leaving ? it’s not something she’ll let happen, not after what they did to her. her friends on the other-hand ? of course she cares about their opinions but she hopes they realize she’s happy. and she’s always wanted to be a mom.
7. would you change what you’ve done/you’re doing? no, long story short vera has always wanted children, and a family of her own. it may not be an ideal time, and it’s a large surprise. but she loves this baby so much already. so she wouldn’t change the fact she’s pregnant not even for a second.
8. do you think your life would be different if you did? how? she doesn’t think it would be different by much. but she also now can’t picture her life without this child even though she’s never met them. held them. the love is already there.
9. what would you do if your secret got exposed? i feel she’d be disappointed. upset even that it had to come from that blog. and not the way she wanted it to be.
10. how far would you go to keep that from happening? not far.. it’s not who she is but she’s tried to be careful about it to the best of her ability even with how horrible her morning sickness was previously.
11. do you believe enmity knows about it? if so, how do you think they found out? vera holds out hope that the enmity has no idea, or haven’t figured it out yet. the only way she thinks is from her doctor, which would be a breech of her information. so she’s going to continue holding onto that hope.
𝓷𝓮𝓼𝓼𝓪 𝓺𝓾𝓲𝓷𝓷-𝓶𝓲𝓵𝓵𝓼 / -- “ we all have stories we won’t ever tell.“
1. what is your biggest secret? nessa is a skilled hacker who gives money to those who need it.
2. how long have you been keeping this secret? probably since nessa was about 16 or 17, she started out small hacking into her school’s grades just honestly to see if she could. and then it went further than that, was it because it was easy ? nobody knows. then she realized she could turn this into something good. so it started with hacking into bank accounts of those that had more than enough money, who wouldn’t miss a couple of thousand dollars, that got transferred anonymously into those who needed it’s bank account. which was when she was around nineteen, so like 3/4 years ?
3. does anyone know about it? if so, did you tell them or did they find out on their own? no, nessa hasn’t shared this with anyone or the fact she’s actually good at hacking. it’s slowly starting to eat her alive keeping it from everyone she cares about.
4. why is it so important that it’s kept a secret? nessa doesn’t want to take any chances, and she figures it’s better that no one know anything about what she does in her spare time. easier to deny if anything ever happened.
5. what do you think would happen to you if it got exposed? jail time of course, given there’d probably be evidence of her ( even if she’s tried everything and then some to make it not be able to be traced back to her ) and then likely even more jail time from those she stole from. if they chose to press charges.
6. are you scared of what your friends and family would think of you if it did? i mean for the most part yes ? she is, that she’d be told how unsafe it is, how stupid it is ( even though she’s been covering her tracks and being safe, etc ) that they’d change their minds , no longer view her the same way, or just all around shut her out.
7. would you change what you’ve done/you’re doing? i don’t think nessa would, this is her way of helping. being the female robin hood so to speak, so she wouldn’t do anything differently. no matter how stupid that maybe on her part.
8. do you think your life would be different if you did? how? i feel like she’d have a pretty boring life. repairing tech and not late at night searching online for those that need money.. and then later depositing money into that account.
9. what would you do if your secret got exposed? this is one i had to really think about. first i think nessa would be hurt. then upset. then disappointed. this is what she likes doing helping others, so to have this taken from her.. it’s supposed to be anonymous, nobody is supposed to know it’s her. and she’s been doing good, so to have that taken from her ? i don’t think she’d know what to say or do.
10. how far would you go to keep that from happening? i think she already goes the max to keep those from finding out. she’s never said anything to anyone. she covers her tracks, and does it late at night where nobody will know and or see.
11. do you believe enmity knows about it? if so, how do you think they found out? i feel like she doesn’t know whether the enmity does or doesn’t. it’s kind of a it is what it is, it hasn’t stopped her and she’s still choosing to help people whilst she still can.
