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Back Because She Loves Me Save as PDF
Chapters (50)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Page
  3. Dedication Page
  4. Contents
  5. One
  6. Two
  7. Three
  8. Four
  9. Five
  10. Six
  11. Seven
  12. Eight
  13. Nine
  14. Ten
  15. Eleven
  16. Twelve
  17. Thirteen
  18. Fourteen
  19. Fifteen
  20. Sixteen
  21. Seventeen
  22. Eighteen
  23. Ninteen
  24. Twenty
  25. Twenty-one
  26. Twenty-two
  27. Twenty-three
  28. Twenty-four
  29. Twenty-five
  30. Twenty-six
  31. Twenty-seven
  32. Twenty-eight
  33. Twenty-nine
  34. Thirty
  35. Thirty-one
  36. Thirty-two
  37. Thirty-three
  38. Thirty-four
  39. Thirty-five
  40. Thirty-six
  41. Thirty-seven
  42. Thirty-eight
  43. Thirty-nine
  44. Forty
  45. Forty-one
  46. Forty-two
  47. Epilogue
  48. Letter From the Author
  49. Acknowledgements
  50. About the Author

‘Yeah. Well, they looked very slim . . . like it could be a woman. But they were moving pretty fast and were obscured by all the bushes and trees.’

I stared at her. ‘You know, I was followed by someone. Or I thought I was. That night after I watched Blair Witch at yours. And so was Charlie – someone followed her through the park. But when we went to look for them there was no one there.’

‘That’s weird,’ she said. ‘But, actually, if it wasn’t for the other stuff—’ She held up a hand to let her continue. ‘If it wasn’t for the other stuff, that would make me feel better. Make me think that it wasn’t me they were targeting specifically. I mean, if there was a mugger or some weirdo in the area, who was following anyone who happened by at the right time, I wouldn’t feel so paranoid.’

‘But?’ I asked.

She stood up. ‘I’m going to need another drink. Same again?’

‘Sasha, what is it?’

She glanced around her and leaned forward. ‘I haven’t told you about the other stuff yet. The really creepy stuff.’

Twenty-three

Twenty-three

Sasha came back from the bar and pushed a fresh glass of wine towards me. The football had started and people were shouting encouragement and abuse at the screen but I could barely hear them. I hadn’t noticed before how pale and ill Sasha looked. Dark circles under her eyes, a waxy complexion, bloodshot pupils, lank hair. She had looked like she was suffering before, when she first split with Lance, but her appearance had worsened considerably since I’d last seen her, when she came round for dinner.

‘Tell me what’s happened,’ I said.

‘OK. Well, firstly, someone’s been in my flat while I was out.’

The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. ‘What do you mean?’

‘It happened twice. The first time, I think it took me a little while to notice, but then I realised: some of the stuff in my flat had moved. For example, I’ve got these three zebras that stand on my mantelpiece.’

‘Yeah, I’ve seen them.’

‘Well, someone turned them the other way round, to face the wall. And that’s not all. You know I have my books arranged in strict alphabetical order by author?’

‘Your library, you mean?’

‘Exactly. A lot of the books had been rearranged, put out of place. DVDs had been swapped around too, so the wrong ones were in the wrong cases. I never do that. It’s one of my things.’

‘I know.’ I had once found myself at the end of a barrage of insults for returning one of Sasha’s box sets with several of the DVDs in the wrong place.

‘At first I thought I was going mad, that I must have done it when I was cleaning.’

‘You don’t have a cleaner?’