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Back The Dead Wife Save as PDF
Chapters (49)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. Chapter One
  4. Chapter Two
  5. Chapter Three
  6. Chapter Four
  7. Chapter Five
  8. Chapter Six
  9. Chapter Seven
  10. Chapter Eight
  11. Chapter Nine
  12. Chapter Ten
  13. Chapter Eleven
  14. Chapter Twelve
  15. Chapter Thirteen
  16. Chapter Fourteen
  17. Chapter Fifteen
  18. Chapter Sixteen
  19. Chapter Seventeen
  20. Chapter Eighteen
  21. Chapter Nineteen
  22. Chapter Twenty
  23. Chapter Twenty-One
  24. Chapter Twenty-Two
  25. Chapter Twenty-Three
  26. Chapter Twenty-Four
  27. Chapter Twenty-Five
  28. Chapter Twenty-Six
  29. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  30. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  31. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  32. Chapter Thirty
  33. Chapter Thirty-One
  34. Chapter Thirty-Two
  35. Chapter Thirty-Three
  36. Chapter Thirty-Four
  37. Chapter Thirty-Five
  38. Chapter Thirty-Six
  39. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  40. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  41. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  42. Chapter Forty
  43. Chapter Forty-One
  44. Chapter Forty-Two
  45. Chapter Forty-Three
  46. Acknowledgements
  47. About the Author
  48. Also by Sue Fortin
  49. About the Publisher

‘I had no choice. The same way you don’t.’

‘Well, fuck you,’ said Harry, before storming out of the room.

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Conmere Lake, Friday, 17 May, 2.50 p.m.

Steph pulled Harry’s coat tighter around her. It was colder out here on the water but the drop in temperature extended further than her physical symptoms. The atmosphere in the boat had shifted; something had changed. There was a look on Pru’s face that she could not determine but it was sending shock waves to Steph’s nerve endings. Suddenly, she didn’t want to be in the boat with Pru. She felt vulnerable and in danger. ‘Are you sure this needs to be done today?’

‘Positive.’ Pru pulled hard on the oars and Steph was surprised by the older woman’s strength. ‘I wish Harry didn’t live in France,’ said Pru unexpectedly as she began to hit her stride with the rowing. ‘But he has his reasons.’

Steph resisted the urge to say she wished that too, but then again, she wished a lot of things about Harry and his not living in France was just one of them. ‘Did he ever want to move to France when Elizabeth was alive? Did Elizabeth like living here on the resort?’

‘She wouldn’t have wanted to live in France,’ said Pru, with a distaste that surprised Steph. ‘She liked it here too much. Harry spoiled her.’ She tutted. ‘He treated her like a princess and she behaved like a slut.’ Steph looked up at Pru, who met her gaze with a defiant look. ‘I know it’s not the done thing to speak ill of the dead, but she caused trouble with my sons.’

A beat and then another passed.

Suddenly, Steph could see everything in twenty-twenty vision. The inexplicable danger she had felt moments earlier was now explicable.

‘What trouble was that?’ she said, trying to keep her voice even, while scolding herself for being so blind to the truth. She had been so convinced it was one of the brothers who had been behind Elizabeth’s death that she hadn’t even tried to look elsewhere. She had been fooled by Pru. She thought it was only her own mother who put everything before her own children, but it wasn’t. Pru did exactly the same and Steph had missed it through her own prejudices towards Wendy.

‘Haven’t you worked it out yet? I thought you would have done by now, especially with your connections.’

‘Connections? What do you mean?’ Steph’s mind was racing. She needed to think fast to try to find a way out of this without alerting Pru to the fact she had worked out the truth.

‘With the newspapers, of course.’ Pru smiled one of the warm, motherly smiles Steph had seen her use when talking to guests.

‘Oh, yes, newspapers. Er, well, I’m a features writer, not really a journalist.’