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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

Delighted as she is by his compliment, she wants him to understand. Some of it, at least. This is what compels her to tell Greg about her mum’s death. How her stage four bowel cancer had gone undetected until it was too late. How Abby never got the chance to say goodbye because she’d chosen that exact moment to leave the hospital for a break. She’d been there every day, all day, for a whole week, watching her mum die, yet Val had chosen her daughter’s short absence as her time to go. ‘It was only eight months ago,’ she tells Greg. ‘Before we moved here. She was only sixty. I’ve been a mess ever since.’ Abby feels purged saying all this, allowing it to leave her body. Some of it she’s never even told Sienna.

Greg grabs her hand and the warmth of him sends a jolt through her body. It’s the alcohol. Nothing more. She has no desire to be unfaithful to Rob, and she’s positive, despite Greg’s comments about Sienna, that this isn’t on his agenda either.

‘Cancer is a cruel and heartless beast,’ he says. ‘And there’s nothing I can say that will make you feel better about losing your mum, except that, believe me, it does somehow get easier to live with. Just give yourself time.’

And what about everything else that’s wrong in her life? Will that just take time too? She wants to ask this, but of course she won’t. Greg doesn’t have those answers and, even if he did, she can never speak aloud things she won’t even admit to herself. Not to her friend’s husband. Not to anyone.

For over an hour Greg listens as she talks about her mother. He lost both of his parents years ago, so he understands and, being a surgeon, he will be accustomed to dealing with grief. This is exactly what she needs. And then he is making her laugh, so that she feels lighter, as though her pain is beginning to seep from her pores.

How is it possible that this man – who she’s known such a short time – is able to help her like this when the closest person in her life can’t?

Abby will often wonder whether her opening up to Greg so candidly prompts what happens next. It will play out in her mind like a scene from a film she’s seen a thousand times. Only she won’t be able to rewind or erase it – as much as she’ll want to.

The next morning, when she wakes up, the dread hanging over her tells her that nothing will ever be the same.

EIGHT

Sienna