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Chapters (82)
  1. Cover
  2. Praise for The House of Whispers
  3. Title Page
  4. Note to Readers
  5. Transcript of interview with Mr Rohan Allerton, husband of Abigail Allerton: 20 December 2019
  6. One
  7. Two
  8. Three
  9. Four
  10. Five
  11. Six
  12. Transcript of interview with Mr Rohan Allerton, husband of Abigail Allerton: 20 December 2019
  13. Seven
  14. Eight
  15. Nine
  16. Ten
  17. Eleven
  18. Transcript of interview with Mr Rohan Allerton, husband of Abigail Allerton: 20 December 2019
  19. Twelve
  20. Transcript of interview with Mr Rohan Allerton, husband of Abigail Allerton: 20 December 2019
  21. Thirteen
  22. Fourteen
  23. Fifteen
  24. Transcript of interview with Mr Rohan Allerton, husband of Abigail Allerton: 20 December 2019
  25. Sixteen
  26. Seventeen
  27. Transcript of interview with Mr Rohan Allerton, husband of Abigail Allerton: 20 December 2019
  28. Eighteen
  29. Nineteen
  30. Twenty
  31. Transcript of interview with Mr Rohan Allerton, husband of Abigail Allerton: 20 December 2019
  32. Twenty-One
  33. Twenty-Two
  34. Twenty-Three
  35. Twenty-Four
  36. Transcript of interview with Mr Rohan Allerton, husband of Abigail Allerton: 20 December 2019
  37. Twenty-Five
  38. Transcript of interview with Mr Rohan Allerton, husband of Abigail Allerton: 20 December 2019
  39. Twenty-Six
  40. Twenty-Seven
  41. Twenty-Eight
  42. Twenty-Nine
  43. Thirty
  44. Thirty-One
  45. Thirty-Two
  46. Thirty-Three
  47. Transcript of interview with Mr Rohan Allerton, husband of Abigail Allerton: 20 December 2019
  48. Thirty-Four
  49. Thirty-Five
  50. Thirty-Six
  51. Thirty-Seven
  52. Thirty-Eight
  53. Transcript of interview with Mr Rohan Allerton, husband of Abigail Allerton: 20 December 2019
  54. Thirty-Nine
  55. Forty
  56. Forty-One
  57. Transcript of interview with Mr Rohan Allerton, husband of Abigail Allerton: 20 December 2019
  58. Forty-Two
  59. Transcript of interview with Mr Rohan Allerton, husband of Abigail Allerton: 20 December 2019
  60. Forty-Three
  61. Forty-Four
  62. Forty-Five
  63. Forty-Six
  64. Forty-Seven
  65. Transcript of interview with Mr Rohan Allerton, husband of Abigail Allerton: 20 December 2019
  66. Forty-Eight
  67. Transcript of interview with Mr Rohan Allerton, husband of Abigail Allerton: 20 December 2019
  68. Forty-Nine
  69. Fifty
  70. Fifty-One
  71. Fifty-Two
  72. Fifty-Three
  73. Fifty-Four
  74. Fifty-Five
  75. Fifty-Six
  76. Fifty-Seven
  77. Fifty-Eight
  78. Fifty-Nine
  79. Sixty
  80. Priory Hospital North London: 20 December 2019
  81. Acknowledgements
  82. About the Publisher

Every day since I’d found out about Grace and Tom, I waited for them to tell me. But as the days ticked by, it became clear that she intended not only to take him, but not even to bother telling me, and something started to grow inside me: courage, maybe, as well as anger. Even now, the anger courses through me when I remember how she treated me; what disdain she had for me while living for free in my home. It was as if all the hurt and the frustration of the previous five years suddenly piled up: the barbed comments, the way she walked all over me, the passive-aggression dressed up as concern. The way she assumed I wanted her in my life; the way she assumed I should be grateful to her for saving my life all those years ago; the fact that she clearly thought I still owed her. Even a criminal does time and is then released, but it seemed I could never escape Grace. She was a ball and chain around my ankle, dragging me back, dragging me down.

I recalled now the thud of trepidation I’d begun to feel when I heard her shoes skip down those steps to our flat in the evenings; the cloying sense of suffocation as I heard her key turn in the lock. I’d tossed and turned at night, wrestling up the strength to claim my life back from her: Grace, my power source, my supporter, my friend, my master, my tormentor, my enemy.

It had taken a fortitude I hadn’t known I had to ask her about Tom and, when I saw her hesitate – when I saw her face flicker as she considered lying – something exploded inside me. I could no longer contain myself.

‘Get out! Get out of my flat and get out of my life!’ I’d screamed at her because, in that moment, I actually wanted to kill her. I could picture myself with my hands around her neck, throttling her until her eyes bulged and her lips turned blue.

Grace’s mouth fell open and then she’d smiled; a slow, sick smile. It was far worse than I’d imagined, the hundred times I’d rehearsed it in my head.

‘You’re kicking me out?’ she laughed, entitlement dripping off her like oil. ‘As if you would! After all I’ve done for you?’

‘So help me, God, get out now or I cannot be responsible for my actions,’ I’d said stepping quietly toward the knife drawer, and that had rattled her.