But slowly things improved. A milestone was seeing her smile for the first time; another was a small tinkling laugh when they sat in the park together, and a brown Labrador raced up to her and licked her face.

‘I like dogs,’ she said, as the sun beamed down on them, and Hugh gripped her hand. It felt like a sign from Pippa. They’d planned to get a Labrador, hadn’t they?

‘I like dogs too, Alice.’ He had no idea why he called her Alice, but it suited her, with her long blonde hair and that lost look. She was no Tiger, no Rosie. She was a little girl who had fallen down a rabbit hole, and got lost in a strange world. Hugh had saved her from danger, hadn’t he? He hoped it wasn’t too late.

At that moment he had no idea what the future would hold, but the intense feelings that ran through him were overwhelming. Was it because she was his daughter, or had he simply needed to protect her, a little someone who would finally give his life meaning?

*

At the end of the university summer break, Clara needed him to give up the annex for students. Hugh packed up the few things they had, tracked down an old friend who arranged fake birth certificates for Adam and Alice Hadley, and headed to Woolacombe in Devon. By then Alice was a good weight, growing into a happy, healthy child. The recurring nightmares she’d had when they’d first arrived at the annex were growing further and further apart. Life would never be easy, Hugh knew that, but then he didn’t deserve easy.

He would always be haunted by his past. Never be free from the grief of losing Pippa, the shock of what his sister had done, or the trauma of being bullied at Felix’s hands. He would always be grateful to Verity for getting him out of their lives – thankful that she did that for him.

But now Alice must come first, and he would keep her safe until the day he died.

Gripped by The Island House? Don’t miss I Lie in Wait, another unputdownable novel from Amanda Brittany. Available now!

Click here if you’re in the US

Click here if you’re in the UK

Keep reading for an excerpt from I Lie in Wait …

Prologue

Now

Me

‘Maddie? Maddie, is that you?’ It is. I know her voice. She’s in the next room. ‘Maddie! Maddie, please help me!’ I tug at the chain trapping my wrist to the bedstead. It cuts into my flesh. Makes fresh wounds.

‘We’re heading back to Drummondale House on Friday,’ she’s saying. ‘It’s the anniversary of Lark and Jackson’s disappearance.’

‘Maddie, please!’ I yell. Why can’t she hear me?