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Back The Marriage Trap: A completely addictive psychological thriller Save as PDF
Chapters (60)
  1. Cover
  2. Books by Sheryl Browne
  3. Dedication
  4. KARLA
  5. One
  6. Two
  7. Three
  8. Four
  9. Five
  10. Six
  11. Seven
  12. Eight
  13. Nine
  14. Ten
  15. Eleven
  16. Twelve
  17. Thirteen
  18. Fourteen
  19. Fifteen
  20. Sixteen
  21. Seventeen
  22. Eighteen
  23. Nineteen
  24. Twenty
  25. Twenty-One
  26. Twenty-Two
  27. Twenty-Three
  28. Twenty-Four
  29. Twenty-Five
  30. Twenty-Six
  31. Twenty-Seven
  32. Twenty-Eight
  33. Twenty-Nine
  34. Thirty
  35. Thirty-One
  36. Thirty-Two
  37. Thirty-Three
  38. Thirty-Four
  39. Thirty-Five
  40. Thirty-Six
  41. Thirty-Seven
  42. Thirty-Eight
  43. Thirty-Nine
  44. Forty
  45. Forty-One
  46. Forty-Two
  47. Forty-Three
  48. Forty-Four
  49. Forty-Five
  50. Forty-Six
  51. Forty-Seven
  52. Forty-Eight
  53. Epilogue
  54. The Affair
  55. Hear more from Sheryl
  56. Books by Sheryl Browne
  57. A Letter from Sheryl
  58. The Babysitter
  59. The Second Wife
  60. Acknowledgements

‘I broached the subject of him approaching Dad for a loan again when we got home,’ I go on. ‘Stupidly, so late at night. We had a few words, and… The long and short of it is, Jason tried to kiss and make up and I… Well, I just didn’t feel like it.’ I don’t elaborate on why – that the things I try to forget had swamped me, thanks to my father’s behaviour at the party, and then Jason reminding me of it, as if he’d needed to.

Mum reaches to squeeze my arm. ‘Things are that bad between you then?’ she says understandingly.

I nod, feeling close to tears. I’m not sure why I’m so upset. Jason’s done nothing terrible really. Looking at a photograph of a woman sent to his phone is hardly evidence of infidelity, is it? He was just—

Window shopping? Sarah pipes up, offering her unwelcome thoughts on the subject.

‘We had more words, obviously.’ Ignoring her, I rush on. ‘Josh heard us and woke up. Jason put him back to bed and then… he slept in the spare room.’

‘Definitely not good then?’ Mum says, her tone soft.

‘No.’ I sigh miserably. ‘He seemed okay this morning. He was tired, but I thought things were okay between us. And then…’ Bracing myself, I turn my attention to Jason’s phone and bring up his messages. ‘I saw these.’

Mum takes the phone, glancing curiously from it to me as she realises it’s Jason’s. She takes a moment, scrolling through the messages, a myriad of expressions crossing her face as she appears to ponder. And then, ‘It’s just boys being boys, Karla,’ she tells me soothingly. ‘Just laddish banter.’

I’m relieved she thinks so, too, but… ‘He’s not a lad though, is he?’ I point out, still unable to quiet the suspicion gnawing away at me. ‘He’s a married man with two children. He scored her, Mum,’ I say bewilderedly, ‘ten out of ten.’

‘And?’ Mum says, and waits for me to get to the point.

I glance down and back. ‘I can’t help thinking he might have sampled the goods, or soon will,’ I admit, hot tears of humiliation and frustration finally spilling over.

Eight

ROBERT

Seeing Karla’s car on the drive as he pulled up, Robert gathered his daughter was visiting. He did hope she wasn’t going to give him grief regarding his attempts to talk some sense into her useless husband. She’d already reprimanded him at the party last night for ‘talking business’, telling him they were supposed to be enjoying themselves.