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Back The Other Husband Save as PDF
Chapters (67)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. PROLOGUE
  4. PART ONE
  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. PART TWO
  23. EIGHTEEN
  24. NINETEEN
  25. TWENTY
  26. TWENTY-ONE
  27. TWENTY-TWO
  28. TWENTY-THREE
  29. TWENTY-FOUR
  30. TWENTY-FIVE
  31. TWENTY-SIX
  32. TWENTY-SEVEN
  33. TWENTY-EIGHT
  34. TWENTY-NINE
  35. PART THREE
  36. THIRTY
  37. THIRTY-ONE
  38. THIRTY-TWO
  39. THIRTY-THREE
  40. THIRTY-FOUR
  41. THIRTY-FIVE
  42. THIRTY-SIX
  43. THIRTY-SEVEN
  44. THIRTY-EIGHT
  45. THIRTY-NINE
  46. PART FOUR
  47. FORTY
  48. FORTY-ONE
  49. FORTY-TWO
  50. FORTY-THREE
  51. FORTY-FOUR
  52. FORTY-FIVE
  53. FORTY-SIX
  54. FORTY-SEVEN
  55. FORTY-EIGHT
  56. FORTY-NINE
  57. FIFTY
  58. FIFTY-ONE
  59. FIFTY-TWO
  60. FIFTY-THREE
  61. FIFTY-FOUR
  62. EPILOGUE
  63. Mailing list
  64. A Letter from Kathryn
  65. Acknowledgements
  66. About the Author
  67. Also by Kathryn Croft

‘Let’s do it,’ Greg says, easing himself back in his chair. ‘I’m up for a laugh. And Rob, I totally trust you to be a gentleman around my wife.’ There are chuckles all around.

‘Okay,’ Abby says. ‘You only live once, right?’ She holds up her glass.

Rob’s eyes widen, but eventually he nods. ‘Looks like I’m outvoted then.’

‘Cheers!’ Greg says, clinking his glass against Abby’s.

This should feel good. Sienna has got her own way, just like one of the jurors in her favourite film who manages to convince all the others to change their verdict. This outlandish suggestion is hers and now they’re all agreeing to do it. She is wielding power over all of them.

Instead, she feels cold. Detached. It doesn’t feel real. But in her usual style, she easily forces out a ‘cheers’.

‘There have to be strict ground rules, though,’ she warns them. ‘No sleeping in the same beds, of course.’

‘Oh, no, that would be weird,’ Abby says. ‘No offence, Greg.’

He holds up his hands. ‘None taken.’

‘And it goes without saying,’ Sienna continues, ‘no physical contact of any kind. We are just house guests in each other’s homes for one night, nothing more.’

Everyone murmurs their assent.

‘Also, I don’t like the idea of it being a wife swap. I think it should be the husbands who go into the wives’ homes.’

Abby giggles. ‘A husband swap is much more twenty-first century.’

While the three of them all speak at once, their animated voices blurring into each other, Sienna’s whole body begins to buzz, melting the numbness she feels and filling it with something else. Satisfaction?

‘One more thing,’ she says. ‘We need to live a little. We do it tonight before any of us has a chance to change our minds. It’s now or never. A one-time only offer. Agreed?’

One by one she studies each of them, attempting to read their faces. Apprehension? Excitement? A mixture of both? It’s hard to tell, until she turns to Rob and sees clearly what is scrawled across his face.

Fear.

SEVEN

Abby

‘Well, this is weird,’ Abby says to Greg as she watches him make himself comfortable on her sofa. He’s been in her house before – with Sienna, of course – yet now he is gazing around, studying every framed picture, every ornament, as though he’s a visitor in a museum.

He nods. ‘It feels nice, though.’ He picks up a magazine from the coffee table – one of the interior design ones Sienna has left here – and puts it straight back down again. ‘Good to have some different company.’