Kate O'Malley

Kate O'Malley, a character in the Veil of Secrets book, is your character's best friend from college and eventual love interest, as well as Flynn's sister. She was the fiancé of Tanner Sterling, though the relationship was tumultuous due to both Tanner's family and her brother not approving of it. Her disappearance at the end of the first chapter spurs the book's events into motion. She makes her first appearance in Chapter 1.

Appearance
Kate has long red hair, blue eyes and fair skin. She wears a white and green floral dress and a pink leather jacket.

Personality
Kate is enthusiastic, upbeat, and friendly, and is overjoyed when she is reunited with Your Character. She is shown to be rather chipper. Eleanor Harlenay also tells you in Chapter 9 that Kate isn't able to hurt a fly and once spent an hour trying to safely shoo one out of her bakery.

Leading Up to the Wedding
Kate and Your Character reunite in the first chapter, a day before the wedding between Kate and her fiance Tanner. On this day, the player spends some time with Kate on her last night as a bachelorette - this is in the mansion itself, or in an upscale restaurant should the player spend the diamonds, where she reveals that two years prior to the events of the book, she opened a bakery called 'Tasty Pastry'. In either case, Kate gets increasingly intoxicated; Tanner suddenly storms in, angry at Kate for putting herself at risk of a hangover on the day of her wedding, and drags her away by the arm. As she is dragged away, she subtly hands Your Character a note only reading "Ulysses", baffling Your Character.

The next morning, as Kate is supposed to exit the dressing room and walk down the aisle, she has gone missing. In the second chapter, her wedding veil is found left behind in the woods surrounding the mansion, near some tire tracks; this causes Your Character to believe she was kidnapped.

Search For Kate
In the fourth chapter, Flynn and Your Character head to Kate's apartment in town to investigate for clues. During this time, there is a flashback to how Kate and Your Character first met - her and you were roommates seven years ago at Hartfeld University. During the investigation, in a premium choice, Flynn and Your Character discover that someone was spying on her, as a teddy bear with a spy camera secretly installed is in her bedroom. They also discover a diary Kate kept - an entry dated a few days ago reveals that she was suspecting Tanner of infidelity where she suspects Tanner was cheating on her. She planned to go to his yacht to investigate. Interestingly, Tanner's yacht was named "Ulysses" - this is not only what Kate wrote in her note, but it is also the name of a mythological creature who cheated on his wife. Her suspicions are proven correct in the fifth chapter, as it is revealed here that Tanner was having an affair with Scarlett Emerson, Kate's own maid of honor. In this chapter, Chief Tommy Walsh puts out an APB on Kate, believing her to be guilty of Tanner's murder suspecting that she was enraged at Tanner's infidelity. This infuriates Your Character and Flynn as they believe she is a victim.

Rescue & Immediate Aftermath
In the seventh chapter, Kate is found alive, albeit drugged and badly disoriented, in the basement of a cabin in Crescent Lake in the woods.

Kate is then transported to the hospital where your character, Flynn, and Naomi go to see her. While she is still sleeping, the doctor talks to both your character and Flynn about her physical condition. Naomi then interrogates Kate about her kidnapping, during which time she says that she saw a man, but didn't see his face because he was wearing a mask. She explains that there was a knife in the cabin in which she was found, and that she might have stabbed him in self-defense at the time when she was drugged. After some time, your character and Grant bring her flowers to make her feel better and happy, which she does.

Unfortunately, her happiness is short-lived because Tommy Walsh enters the room claiming that Kate is guilty of the murder of Tanner. Kate, shocked to learn about Tanner's death, breaks down in tears and your character consoles her in response. Walsh doesn't believe her and calls her crying and abduction mere acts, then arrests her despite Naomi telling him that she needs rest and that they need more evidence to support the accusation. He orders Naomi to clear the scene, which she refuses to do, making him take the matter into his own hands.

She is later placed on trial for the murder of Tanner, with District Attorney Mac Hornby as her prosecutor. She was originally denied bail but was eventually proven innocent of Tanner's murder when it appeared that Nikolai was the man behind her abduction.

She meets your character in the police station where she reveals that she is pregnant with Tanner's child. This causes Jeff Duffy (birth name Taylor Acosta) a.k.a. The Birchport Killer to murder state investigator Tino Thompson, Margaret Sterling, and Chief Walsh and reveal that he was the mastermind behind her abduction. He proceeds to take her hostage, lock your character in a cell, and destroy your phone, before escaping with Kate and revealing his plan to fully eradicate the Sterling bloodline. However, she is later rescued.

Epilogue
It is revealed that she is able to expand her previously mentioned business to three other locations while she is taking care of Rachel, her daughter.

Veil of Secrets

 * Chapter 1: Missing Persons
 * Chapter 4: First Blood
 * Chapter 7: Into The Woods
 * Chapter 8: ...And Found
 * Chapter 9: The Rocket's Red Glare (Mentioned)
 * Chapter 10: Collateral Damage (Mentioned)
 * Chapter 11: Lawful Good
 * Chapter 12: The Kraken
 * Chapter 13: Under the Bed
 * Chapter 14: The Face of Evil
 * Chapter 15: The End of the Line
 * Chapter 16: All's Well That Ends...

Flynn O'Malley
Flynn is her brother. It's been explained that they aren't as close after Flynn got out of prison, but they did get beers from time to time. Flynn used to read to her when they were children, and Flynn is the only immediate family member of Kate's to attend the wedding. He is extremely concerned when she disappears and becomes Your Character's partner during his/her private investigation into her disappearance. Flynn gets visibly angry when he discovers things during the investigation that suggest that harm was done to Kate; he is enraged to discover Kate suspecting Tanner of cheating on her (announcing intent to harm Tanner before discovering he had died), and is willing to physically attack and intimidate a man who demands $1,000 for information on Kate's whereabouts.

Tanner Sterling
Tanner was her fiancé until his death. His feelings about her disappearance are split, as he shows both concern and anger. She suspected Tanner was cheating on her which is revealed to be true. In Chapter 14, it is revealed that she is pregnant and that he is the father.

Your Character
Your Character is her best friend. They were close back in college but lost touch upon graduation. They were also roommates at Hartfeld seven years ago. After she disappears, Your Character spends days searching for her when it becomes clear that Chief Walsh is corrupt and has no interest in solving the case.

Grant Emerson
Kate is friends with Grant, who was friends with Tanner.

Scarlett Emerson
Kate's maid of honor is Scarlett. However, as it turns out, Tanner was cheating on Kate with her.

Jeff Duffy
Jeff Duffy was the man behind Kate's abduction. He reveals that he never wanted to hurt her, but wanted to prevent her from becoming a Sterling. Once he discovers that she is pregnant with Tanner's child, he decides that she must die as well in order to prevent another Sterling from being brought into the world. If you rescue him, he will ask you in the final chapter to tell Kate that he is sorry about what he did to her.

Trivia

 * Kate is shown on the cover of Veil of Secrets.
 * In Chapter 6, it's revealed that she worked summers at a dive bar called Shipwreck Sally's.
 * If you look closely, Tanner and Kate's wedding invitation says it's in June 2018. This is a direct reference to the launch of Veil of Secrets.
 * During a premium scene in Book 1, Chapter 8, if Your Character decides to stay with her in the hospital, we get a confirmation that she is bisexual, when she talks about four of her relationships prior to dating Tanner and one of them was with a woman.
 * She shares this title with Zig Ortega from The Freshman, Emma Hawkins from High School Story, Lily Spencer and Kamilah Sayeed from Bloodbound, Seth Levine from Red Carpet Diaries, Alana Kusuma from Perfect Match, and Will Jackson from The Crown & The Flame.
 * In Chapter 14, it's revealed that she is pregnant.
 * In the epilogue, her child is a year old and is named Rachel O'Malley.
 * At the end of Chapter 16, she is officially confirmed to be a love interest if Your Character decides to stay in Birchport with her.
 * Given that her full first name is Katherine, she shares the same first name as Katherine from the Hero series and Katherine from Nightbound.
 * The name Katherine is of Latin and Greek origin, which means: Pure, clear, unsullied.
 * The surname O'Malley is of Irish origin and means: Descendent of Maoileoin (means gentle), Maille (means smooth), Maglios (means chieftain).
 * The name of her daughter, Rachel, is of Hebrew origin and means "ewe".