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Back Every Little Secret Save as PDF
Chapters (81)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. Prologue
  4. Chapter One
  5. Chapter Two
  6. Chapter Three
  7. Chapter Four
  8. Chapter Five
  9. Chapter Six
  10. Chapter Seven
  11. Chapter Eight
  12. Chapter Nine
  13. Chapter Ten
  14. Chapter Eleven
  15. Chapter Twelve
  16. Chapter Thirteen
  17. Chapter Fourteen
  18. Chapter Fifteen
  19. Chapter Sixteen
  20. Chapter Seventeen
  21. Chapter Eighteen
  22. Chapter Nineteen
  23. Chapter Twenty
  24. Chapter Twenty-One
  25. Chapter Twenty-Two
  26. Chapter Twenty-Three
  27. Chapter Twenty-Four
  28. Chapter Twenty-Five
  29. Chapter Twenty-Six
  30. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  31. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  32. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  33. Chapter Thirty
  34. Chapter Thirty-One
  35. Chapter Thirty-Two
  36. Chapter Thirty-Three
  37. Chapter Thirty-Four
  38. Chapter Thirty-Five
  39. Chapter Thirty-Six
  40. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  41. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  42. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  43. Chapter Forty
  44. Chapter Forty-One
  45. Chapter Forty-Two
  46. Chapter Forty-Three
  47. Chapter Forty-Four
  48. Chapter Forty-Five
  49. Chapter Forty-Six
  50. Chapter Forty-Seven
  51. Chapter Forty-Eight
  52. Chapter Forty-Nine
  53. Chapter Fifty
  54. Chapter Fifty-One
  55. Chapter Fifty-Two
  56. Chapter Fifty-Three
  57. Chapter Fifty-Four
  58. Chapter Fifty-Five
  59. Chapter Fifty-Six
  60. Chapter Fifty-Seven
  61. Chapter Fifty-Eight
  62. Chapter Fifty-Nine
  63. Chapter Sixty
  64. Chapter Sixty-One
  65. Chapter Sixty-Two
  66. Chapter Sixty-Three
  67. Chapter Sixty-Four
  68. Chapter Sixty-Five
  69. Chapter Sixty-Six
  70. Chapter Sixty-Seven
  71. Chapter Sixty-Eight
  72. Chapter Sixty-Nine
  73. Chapter Seventy
  74. Chapter Seventy-One
  75. Chapter Seventy-Two
  76. Chapter Seventy-Three
  77. Chapter Seventy-Four
  78. A Letter From Ruby
  79. Acknowledgements
  80. About the Author
  81. Also by Ruby Speechley

‘It’s only me, good boy,’ the woman says in a gruff smoker’s voice. The dog’s nametag jangles. Then silence. A foot on a stair, then another. Maddy glares at the papers strewn over the bed, the drawer hanging out like a tongue. The footsteps stop and go back down in heavy stomps. Maddy tries to swallow, but her mouth is so dry her lips stick like flypaper. She listens to the squeak of the under-stairs cupboard being opened then closed. After a long minute the front door rattles open then slams shut. Maddy lets out a breath and leans towards the window. The woman is waddling across the road holding a full laundry basket. She disappears around the back of her house. Maddy tidies everything away and, checking there’s no one outside, she leaves the house as quickly as she can.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Max: October 2014

Max lay the baby in Emily’s lap and Maddy took a photo. Another daughter. His heart could burst with joy. They’d both liked the name Chloe straight away. They didn’t disagree about much at all and he was all for an easy life.

Maddy passed the camera to him and picked Chloe up. Time to feed her again already. He’d forgotten how relentless it was at the beginning. He’d enjoyed bottle feeding Emily and wished he could help more with Chloe. Maddy was breast-feeding this time. She promised to express some milk so that he could do the next feed. Wonderful how she’d taken to it so easily. Shame she hadn’t been well enough when Emily was born. It had taken several weeks for them all to get over the accident. Once Maddy was receiving treatment for postnatal depression, she slowly got better. Thankfully she wasn’t showing any signs of it this time.

Now he’d finished renovating the house he’d found a big contract doing up new houses in nearby Hillingdon. There were estates popping up everywhere. Even the old RAF camp in Uxbridge was going to be developed. As long as there was plenty of local work for him so he could be near his family, he was happy.

He took Emily’s hand and led her into her newly painted bedroom. She’d only just started walking. They’d been worried about her slow development because of the accident, but the doctors didn’t think there was anything to worry about. He sat with Emily in her play tent and they took turns dropping the brightly coloured balls down the slides. Her laugh and the surprise on her face every time the ball appeared at the bottom, was a picture.