She covered her face with her hands and felt the wind curl around her body like a cold embrace. Even the wind pitied her.

Max barked again, closer this time; she felt the heat of his breath on the backs of her legs.

‘Stay away! Go!’

His high-pitched whine sliced through her chest. She landed on the ground with a dull thump, sending crumbs of dirt from the edge towards the sea.

Max nuzzled her hair with his wet nose and licked her tears.

She hadn’t brought him with her last night for fear of not being able to go through with it with him so close, but then the guilt had eaten away at her when she thought of him locked up inside the house waiting to be found. What if no one realised she was gone? What if he wasted away waiting for her to come home? She imagined her mother entering her house and being hit by the smell of him, decomposing in his bed.

The sun hid behind a cloud and left her to the mercy of the breeze drifting in from the sea. She stood up and began to dress.

‘Tomorrow,’ she whispered. ‘I’ll do it tomorrow.’

She forced her feet into her socks and walking boots. The laces fumbled between her deadened fingertips, numb to the bone.

The suicide note teetered on the edge of her jeans pocket and whipped up with the breeze, carried briefly about the green before it launched over the edge of the cliff and danced in the air, right before her eyes. All she saw was darkness.

‘Come on,’ she said, searching for Max’s service harness on the wet grass. ‘Let’s go home.’

She fitted Max’s harness and walked away from the cliff edge. Another failed attempt. She took a deep breath and held it in her lungs until her chest burned.

Tomorrow, she thought. I’ll do it tomorrow.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Many thanks to my agent, Sarah Manning of The Bent Agency, for her astounding work and dedication, and to my editors Sara O’Keeffe and Poppy Mostyn-Owen for working on this novella with me.

This story is for all the readers who waited anxiously for my next book. While I wanted to make my upcoming novel Before Her Eyes as perfect as possible for you, I didn’t want to keep you waiting any longer without a new Jack Jordan book to read. Thank you all so much for enthusiasm and love for my work.

Thank you to Tracy Fenton and everyone at The Book Club on Facebook, and all the bloggers who have read my work, past and present. When publishing a book, word-of-mouth recommendations and reviews are essential – thank you so much.

Thank you to my family and friends for all of your support and love.