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Back One Mistake Save as PDF
Chapters (56)
  1. Books by Rona Halsall
  2. Dedication
  3. Prologue
  4. Chapter One
  5. Chapter Two
  6. Three weeks later
  7. Chapter Three
  8. Chapter Four
  9. Chapter Five
  10. Chapter Six
  11. Chapter Seven
  12. Chapter Eight
  13. Chapter Nine
  14. Chapter Ten
  15. Chapter Eleven
  16. Chapter Twelve
  17. Chapter Thirteen
  18. Chapter Fourteen
  19. Chapter Fifteen
  20. Chapter Sixteen
  21. Chapter Seventeen
  22. Chapter Eighteen
  23. Chapter Nineteen
  24. Chapter Twenty
  25. Chapter Twenty-One
  26. Chapter Twenty-Two
  27. Chapter Twenty-Three
  28. Chapter Twenty-Four
  29. Chapter Twenty-Five
  30. Chapter Twenty-Six
  31. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  32. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  33. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  34. Chapter Thirty
  35. Chapter Thirty-One
  36. Chapter Thirty-Two
  37. Chapter Thirty-Three
  38. Chapter Thirty-Four
  39. Chapter Thirty-Five
  40. Chapter Thirty-Six
  41. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  42. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  43. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  44. Chapter Forty
  45. Ten days later
  46. Chapter Forty-One
  47. Seven months later
  48. Love You Gone
  49. Hear More from Rona
  50. A Letter from Rona
  51. Books by Rona Halsall
  52. Her Mother’s Lies
  53. The Honeymoon
  54. Keep You Safe
  55. Acknowledgements
  56. *

She carried on cleaning the floor, her body shaking. She’d never seen him like this before. Couldn’t believe the change in him. He was drinking more, got angry so quickly. She’d put it down to stress. Thought it was because he was trying so hard to make up for losing his job. But maybe that wasn’t it. Maybe she’d been making assumptions that were just plain wrong.

Perhaps there was a side to him that had lain dormant all these years.

His threat bounced round her head and she had to take it seriously. This weekend with James had to be the last, then she had to put more distance between them, because she could feel that her heart was betraying her, pulling her towards James and away from her husband. And her family. She couldn’t let that happen. Keeping the family together was paramount, and she’d go to hell and back to make sure her children had the security she’d always yearned for when she was growing up.

Her mind scratched away at the problem while she searched the floor for stray pieces of glass.

Her deal with James had to end. But how?

The only way was to own up to Matt. Tell him what she’d done and use some of the cash from his contract to repay her debt. She nodded to herself. That was exactly what she’d do. She’d tell James she had the money. Then she’d confess to Matt and…

She sat back against the kitchen cupboard, knees to her chest, and hung her head, exhausted and confused, appalled at how her life had spiralled out of control. How do I get back to where we were before? She didn’t have the answers, knew it was impossible. Things had fundamentally changed, and like tectonic plates shifting on the surface of the earth, her world and Matt’s no longer fitted together. They were sliding in different directions and she had no idea how to pull them back together. A tear ran down her cheek, then another. She brushed them away, determined not to give in to despair. After the troubles of her childhood, surely she could work this problem out.

As she sat in the quiet of the kitchen, nothing to hear but the clock ticking on the wall, her thoughts calmed until there were no more ripples on the surface of her mind. And then, like a fish breaking the surface of the water, a new question jumped into her head.

Is Matt’s work even legal?

Chapter Twenty-One