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Chapters (46)
  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Dedication
  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. Acknowledgments
  37. Read on for an extract from the brand new book from Lucy Diamond
  38. Prologue
  39. Chapter One
  40. Q&A with Lucy Diamond
  41. On a Beautiful Day
  42. The House of New Beginnings
  43. Praise
  44. About the Author
  45. By the Same Author
  46. Copyright

Worst of all, at some point, when they couldn’t put it off any longer, she and Harry would have to have The Conversation, make some decisions. Harry would tell her what he wanted to do about Her, and Jeanie would have to put her own feelings on the table in response. It’s her or me, she had proclaimed a week earlier, and she was not a woman to go back on her word. What if Harry chose her, this new daughter? What if he said he’d preferred Kathy all along? Their marriage might never recover from this hit.

Doom-laden minor chords played in her head at the prospect. It was all too terrible for words.

Rolling over in bed and nestling into the soft, comfortable pillows, she shut her eyes, not wanting to think about Harry or his betrayal any more. If only she could stay here instead, she thought longingly. Stay here and never go back . . .

Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

The radio silence from her mother over the last week had been very odd, thought Paula as she parked at the airport on Sunday. The two of them had always been close, speaking on the phone or texting pretty much every day, if not catching up in person. When Paula had first become a mum, Jeanie had been like a guiding star through the early weeks of parenthood, pushing colicky baby Luke around the streets in his pram for hours at a time so that Paula could try and sleep. She had always loved her mum, of course, but it wasn’t until she saw the tender, patient way Jeanie engaged with Paula’s own children that it really struck her how strong family bonds could be, and how deeply love could run between generations. But for the last seven days there had been no cheery text message or phone call, no funny photos on the family WhatsApp group. A hole had opened up in Paula’s life without Jeanie there.

It wasn’t just Paula she’d gone quiet on; nobody had heard from Jeanie. Paula had sent her various supportive messages and voicemails with no reply, before becoming worried that her mum had somehow gone AWOL in transit – or worse. After two days she’d actually called the hotel in a panic, caught up in a terrible What if . . . ? loop of doom. If something had happened to Mum and she’d been on her own, Paula would kill Dad for it. Kill him with her own bare hands, just see if she didn’t. But – ‘Your mother is here and says she is perfectly fine,’ the manager had assured her, in charming broken English. ‘She is having a lovely holiday, but doesn’t wish to speak to anyone.’