Chapters (58)
- Cover
- Dedication
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-one
- Twenty-two
- Twenty-three
- Twenty-four
- Twenty-five
- Twenty-six
- Twenty-seven
- Twenty-eight
- Twenty-nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-one
- Thirty-two
- Thirty-three
- Thirty-four
- Thirty-five
- Thirty-six
- Thirty-seven
- Thirty-eight
- Thirty-nine
- Forty
- Forty-one
- Forty-two
- Forty-three
- Forty-four
- Forty-five
- Forty-six
- Forty-seven
- Forty-eight
- Forty-nine
- Fifty
- Fifty-one
- Acknowledgements
- An Eastbourne Murder Mystery
- Canelo Crime
- About the Author
- Also by Sheila Bugler
‘We had a hamster when I was little. I remember one winter it got sick and my dad had to smother it with a cushion. He said it was an act of kindness because the hamster wouldn’t survive, anyway. I thought I could kill you the same way, not as an act of kindness but as an act of revenge. I went onto the internet and found there was an IT store in Polegate. I drove there and bought a packet of cable ties. Then I bought the vodka, because even though I hated you, I knew I wouldn’t be able to do it unless I was drunk. And I did so well, but I couldn’t finish it. I couldn’t even do that.’
She’d started crying again. Kitty wanted to give her a hug, but she wasn’t sure Maeve would let her. Before she could work out the best course of action, someone knocked on the door.
‘Kitty?’
Relief flooded through her at the sound of her sister’s voice.
‘It’s Emer,’ she said to Maeve. ‘Are you okay if I let her in?’
Maeve nodded, and Kitty stood up. As she walked to the door, she thought of the other time she’d been in a hotel with her sister. And her heart filled with joy that this time she was walking towards her, not running away.
Fifty
Three days later
‘It’s the deceit I can’t get over. All those lies. And you, my beautiful child, those precious years we’ll never get back. I’ve been robbed of so many moments we should have had together.’
‘You really had no idea?’ Kitty said.
Ursula dabbed the corner of her eyes with a tissue, looking every inch the heartbroken mother she was trying hard to portray. She’d have to try a hell of a lot harder, Emer thought, before she convinced either of her daughters.
They were sitting in the conservatory – a huge space overlooking the landscaped grounds of the old coaching house. Kitty and Emer had flown into Dublin last night and driven down to Ballincarraig first thing this morning.
At some level, Emer had always known her mother had never really loved Robert. She’d married him for his money and the lifestyle he’d promised her. She suspected Robert had known it too, but his slavish devotion to the woman he regularly described as ‘the most beautiful creature on God’s earth’ meant he was willing to overlook her inability to love in exchange for being able to call her his wife.