BooksBarbecue
Back The Lies We Told Save as PDF
Chapters (44)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright
  3. Table of Contents
  4. Dedication
  5. 1
  6. 2
  7. 3
  8. 4
  9. 5
  10. 6
  11. 7
  12. 8
  13. 9
  14. 10
  15. 11
  16. 12
  17. 13
  18. 14
  19. 15
  20. 16
  21. 17
  22. 18
  23. 19
  24. 20
  25. 21
  26. 22
  27. 23
  28. 24
  29. 25
  30. 26
  31. 27
  32. 28
  33. 29
  34. 30
  35. 31
  36. 32
  37. 33
  38. 34
  39. 35
  40. Acknowledgements
  41. Keep Reading…
  42. About the Author
  43. Also by Camilla Way
  44. About the Publisher

Clara gasped, shock rendering her speechless. ‘Seriously?’ she said at last. ‘I mean, my God! Are you sure it’s her?’

He nodded and smiled properly for the first time. ‘She sent a photo. She’s got a kid, a girl aged twelve. She’d seen the trial on TV and now everything’s out in the open, she wants me and Tom to meet her.’

‘And your parents?’

He looked down and shook his head.

So Hannah had been lying about Emily after all.

The sun slid lower, a throbbing red orb on the horizon now, and around them the late summer evening was heavy with the sound of crickets, the scent of scorched grass. She drank in the beautiful view she knew she would never see again. ‘I’m happy for you, Luke,’ Clara said quietly. ‘I really am. I’m glad that something good has come from all of this.’

At last they’d hugged goodbye, and she’d seen that he was trying to be brave, that he was doing his best to let her go. She’d taken one last long look at The Willows before she got back in her car and drove away.

Now, five months later as she stood outside the courts, she put her phone back in her bag. The future stretched out before her and for the first time in a long while she felt an undeniable feeling of hope. Everything had changed. She’d found a new, better-paid job and moved into a shared house with some friends in Greenwich not too far from where Zoe lived. She’d even, in the odd snatched moments after work and at weekends, begun jotting down the beginning of the novel she’d always wanted to write. She would be thirty later this month, and it felt as though her life was starting anew. It was a good feeling.

Suddenly the traffic cleared and she saw, on the other side of the road, a familiar figure standing by his car, talking on his phone. Mac. He looked up and smiled, and she raised her hand and waved, stepping towards him, to where he was waiting for her, her heart lifting at the sight of her friend.

34

London, 2017

As Clara began to cross the road towards him, Mac hastily hung up his phone, put it in his pocket and, despite the dead weight of panic bearing down upon him, forced himself to smile. It was the fifth time Hannah had contacted him from her remand centre and every time she did so his fear of her, of how she might punish him, deepened.