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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. *

‘I know, I understand, but someone sent him…’ She stopped herself, aware that once she started explaining the details, the whole truth was in danger of coming out. And she couldn’t let that happen. Fiona could never know the truth. Because then she’d tell the police, and Sara would be no better than her mother. Stealing was never a solution. Funny how life had a way of slapping you round the face with things you said you’d never do.

‘Sent him what?’ Fiona coaxed, obviously curious.

Sara swallowed her temptation to confess, took a deep breath and redirected her thoughts. She looked at Fiona, whose face did sympathy very well. Not telling the whole truth is not a lie, she told herself before she answered. ‘He misunderstood. That’s what happened. Then he overreacted and threw me out of the house. Wouldn’t let me back in. So I had to go and stay with Hailey.’ She pulled at her T-shirt. ‘These were the only clothes we could find to fit me.’

‘Oh Sara, I’m so sorry to hear that. And Matt’s just getting on his feet again, isn’t he? Such a blow getting made redundant, especially in the IT industry. You don’t expect it, do you?’ She gave a little shake of the head, lips pressed together. ‘The girls were telling me all about it over the weekend. They said… Well, they did say there’d been a bit of tension in the house, you know. That you two had been arguing.’

Sara focused her gaze on the wall in front of her, unable to deal with Fiona’s sympathy any longer. Fiona with her perfect house and perfect husband and perfect daughter and loads of money and everything she could possibly want. How could she even begin to understand?

‘They’re so proud of their father for setting up his own business,’ Fiona continued. ‘Maybe he’s just feeling a bit stressed and will have calmed down today. Have you spoken to him?’

She shook her head. ‘I thought I’d give him some space, go and see him later.’

‘Is there anything I can do? Would it help to have some time off, do you think?’

Sara lined up the papers on the desk as she thought, but before she could answer, Fiona carried on.