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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

‘At first I was so sure, so sure she would come back. You picture it, your girl found, you wrapping her in your arms, kissing her, snuggling into her neck and promising yourself you will never let her out of your sight for even a split second, ever again. Because you hear about people – you see it even – they lose their kids in the supermarket and you can hear the desperation in their voice and the absolute relief when . . . well, the relief when they get them back and they squeeze them . . .’ He makes as if he is squeezing a daughter that never returned. ‘I never thought she wouldn’t come back. Never. All these years, living like this. I never . . .’ His voice trails off. He stops and shakes his head, putting forefinger and thumb to the bridge of his nose.

‘In the end, it got so that I wanted them to find her dead. Can you believe that? I can’t stand to say it but I did. A dad who wanted the police to knock on his door and tell him that his daughter was found in a ditch somewhere. I wanted the nightmare to end for Maureen because she wasn’t good . . . she was hardly . . . I kept her alive, Chloe, in those early days. I was the only thing that Maureen had and I promised her that Angie would come back, day after day, then week after week, month after month, and then it was years and decades . . . and then you . . .’ His voice trails off. ‘It was a split-second mistake, one look away and she was gone. And I lied, I lied to the police, I lied to my wife, and I’ve lived with that little white lie ever since. It has killed me, Chloe, you’ve got to believe me.’

But Chloe is only thinking of Angie. She doesn’t care what happened to Patrick. Does she believe him? She’s not sure. But this story, it’s too elaborate to be made up. And she thinks of Maureen, how broken she’s been by the whole thing, how she herself protected her. Is it possible he’s telling the truth?

‘In the end I realized that my punishment for what I’d done was this nothingness, this limbo, this bit trapped between living and dead, without answers. That was my punishment for my little white lie, and the only thing I could do to make anything right again was to devote myself absolutely to Maureen. To love her and keep on loving her, and try somehow to make up for what I had done.’