Chapters (67)
- Cover
- Dedication
- PROLOGUE
- PART ONE
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- PART TWO
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- PART THREE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- THIRTY-NINE
- PART FOUR
- FORTY
- FORTY-ONE
- FORTY-TWO
- FORTY-THREE
- FORTY-FOUR
- FORTY-FIVE
- FORTY-SIX
- FORTY-SEVEN
- FORTY-EIGHT
- FORTY-NINE
- FIFTY
- FIFTY-ONE
- FIFTY-TWO
- FIFTY-THREE
- FIFTY-FOUR
- EPILOGUE
- Mailing list
- A Letter from Kathryn
- Acknowledgements
- About the Author
- Also by Kathryn Croft
She’s packing things into boxes, getting the house sorted so that she can leave for Ipswich as soon as possible; she doesn’t want to be here any longer than she has to. Rob can have it until it’s sold – unless he ends up in prison.
Abby is ashamed of the thoughts she’s having: that she wants it to be Rob because then she will be free and this will all be behind her. There will be no more looking over her shoulder. She’s doing that now, of course, heading to the window every few minutes to check nobody is outside the house. And she’s lost count of the number of times she’s checked the door is locked.
By eight o’clock there’s been no sign of Rob, and Abby convinces herself that if he had any inkling that Sienna had called the police, this is the last place he would come. Still, she won’t allow herself to be complacent – Rob despises her for what she’s done, and that animosity has to be far stronger than any he would have felt towards Greg.
She’s drifting off on the sofa when it happens. Someone banging on the door, jolting her awake. And that’s when the enormity of the trouble she’s in hits her. She rushes to the window and sees Lillian’s car in the drive. Rob must have borrowed it. She needs to act normally, keep him outside the house so that she can call the police.
Keeping the chain on, she unlocks the door. When she pulls it open, she’s surprised to find Lillian standing there, her eyes wide with a rage worse than Abby’s ever witnessed on her before.
‘Let me in, Abby,’ she hisses. ‘We need to talk right now.’
Abby owes this woman nothing. She should close the door on her; there is no need for Lillian to be in her life any more. Lillian despises her, always has done, so she should be happy that Abby has left Rob. Why, then, does she look like she wants to strangle her?
She’s only partially aware of her motivation for opening the door: she wants validation. If Rob is guilty then it shows that Lillian was wrong all along: Abby is not the one who wasn’t good enough for her son; it’s the other way around if Rob is capable of taking someone’s life.
‘What do you want?’ she says as Lillian brushes past her.
‘This is low, even for you,’ she says.
‘I have no idea what you’re talking about.’ Abby stays calm. Everything has changed, and there is no way Lillian can get to her now.