I know what you’re probably thinking. That I’m no better than Fran, that my behaviour is even more appalling if anything, but I’ll fight you on that. I’ll defend my actions to the end. You didn’t see the look on Fran’s face when she spoke about Dominic that night – it was the face of a woman deranged – unhinged, for sure. The woman is a surefire psychopath. There was no way I could leave Laurel with her. I didn’t know what would happen to her – would Fran someday decide that Laurel had slighted her the way she thought Dominic had? What would happen then? There was only one course of action for me, as I saw it, so I took the first opportunity I had, waiting until all the lights had gone out in the cottage before I gently broke in through the old front door. A lifetime of losing my keys served me well.

I’m taking Laurel to my aunt’s house in France. We’ll be safe there – Fran doesn’t even know the house exists, and I’ve already told my mum I’ll be here, and that I’m writing a novel, that I need peace and quiet. I’ll teach Laurel to speak French, and we’ll get by on the little money I have saved. She’ll grow up in a safe, healthy environment, where she won’t have to watch what she says, or tiptoe around, terrified in case she starts a row. She’ll be loved. I’ll be nervous for a while, of course I will, but it will soon settle down once we’re accepted as part of the village. I turn into the secluded lane that leads to my aunt’s house, a ramshackle farmhouse built over a hundred and fifty years ago.

Pulling up next to the house, I pause for a moment, allowing myself to think briefly about Fran, and whether she is awake yet. I wonder if she’s realised that Laurel is not in her bed, if she ran into Polly’s room to wake her. And I wonder what she will do about it – after all, it’s not as if she can report Laurel missing, is it?

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book has only made it out into the world thanks to a cracking team of brilliant people – Kate Mills, Lisa Milton, Celia Lomas and Victoria Moynes, to name a few. Thank you so much for all your input and work . . . I still feel so incredibly lucky to part of such an amazing team.

Thank you to my lovely agent, Lisa Moylett, and all of the team at CMM who work so tirelessly to make sure my books are the best they can possibly be, reining me in when things get a little bit off the wall (sorry!).