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Back The Imposter Save as PDF
Chapters (55)
  1. Cover
  2. ANNA WHARTON
  3. Dedication page
  4. ONE
  5. TWO
  6. THREE
  7. FOUR
  8. FIVE
  9. SIX
  10. SEVEN
  11. EIGHT
  12. NINE
  13. TEN
  14. ELEVEN
  15. TWELVE
  16. THIRTEEN
  17. FOURTEEN
  18. FIFTEEN
  19. SIXTEEN
  20. SEVENTEEN
  21. EIGHTEEN
  22. NINETEEN
  23. TWENTY
  24. TWENTY-ONE
  25. TWENTY-TWO
  26. TWENTY-THREE
  27. TWENTY-FOUR
  28. TWENTY-FIVE
  29. TWENTY-SIX
  30. TWENTY-SEVEN
  31. TWENTY-EIGHT
  32. TWENTY-NINE
  33. THIRTY
  34. THIRTY-ONE
  35. THIRTY-TWO
  36. THIRTY-THREE
  37. THIRTY-FOUR
  38. THIRTY-FIVE
  39. THIRTY-SIX
  40. THIRTY-SEVEN
  41. THIRTY-EIGHT
  42. THIRTY-NINE
  43. FORTY
  44. FORTY-ONE
  45. FORTY-TWO
  46. FORTY-THREE
  47. FORTY-FOUR
  48. FORTY-FIVE
  49. FORTY-SIX
  50. FORTY-SEVEN
  51. FORTY-EIGHT
  52. FORTY-NINE
  53. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  54. Praise
  55. THE IMPOSTER

Chloe goes about her usual routine, taking a bowl from the cupboard for her cereal, crossing the kitchen to take a spoon from the drawer. Its runners grate in the silence.

At the table, Chloe looks between Patrick’s newspaper and Maureen, who stirs her tea slowly, looking down.

Outside, bare trees sway in front of a pale sky. Chloe spoons cereal into her mouth, watching Maureen when she gets up from her chair to cut Patrick’s sandwiches slowly with a sharp knife. She wraps them in clingfilm and leaves them on the worktop. She steps back, returns to her chair. On cue – as if the pair of them have been choreographed – Patrick gets up and scoops his sandwiches from where she’s left them. He hesitates then, as if, for a second, he forgets the steps. He goes to give Maureen a kiss as he usually would before he leaves for work, but she gets up and leaves the kitchen, his kiss hanging in the cool of the air she leaves behind. He glances at Chloe then and she quickly looks down into her bowl, then he leaves.

Maureen doesn’t return to the kitchen until Chloe hears his car start.

What’s gone on between them?

Chloe wonders whether she should ask about the argument she overheard last night. She eats her breakfast slowly while she considers how to put it. But Maureen is now setting up her sewing machine at the table, and Chloe feels the moment has passed. She watches Maureen as she gets ready, pulling a length of material from her sewing box that Chloe recognizes, although she can’t say where from. Perhaps she’s just seen Maureen working on it over the last few days.

She pretends to read the cereal packet, one eye on Maureen as she winds orange thread onto the bobbin. Chloe lifts her bowl to make more room for her. Maureen thanks her quietly.

Across the table, Maureen picks up the material and breaks the silence between them by humming, winding the thread through the machine. Neither woman speaks, not even when Chloe gets up from the table and taps the contents of her bowl into the swing bin.

Chloe leaves the kitchen and goes upstairs to shower. She stands under the water, trying to piece together Maureen and Patrick’s argument from the night before with the snippets she had heard. Whatever it was they had argued about had rolled into this new day.