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Back The Other Husband
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

Sienna turns to watch Lillian in the kitchen where she’s filling two glasses with water. Clearly this is a woman who doesn’t like to be argued with.

‘You said your husband’s missing?’ she says when she comes back out. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘Greg disappeared a week ago. Took nothing with him, only his wallet. At least, he always had it on him, so I assume he took it.’

‘How awful. I can’t even imagine what you’re going through. So what’s Abby got to do with this?’

Sienna has to be careful here; if she reveals that Abby has had some sort of affair with Greg, then there’ll be nothing to stop Lillian getting straight on the phone to Rob and telling him everything. There is nothing for it but to tell a lie beyond anything she’s thought herself capable of. Needs must.

‘Before he left, my husband told me that he felt Abby might be fixated on him.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Greg said she’d been texting him, showing up at his work for no good reason, always trying to see him or talk to him. He said it made him feel uncomfortable. And right before he went missing, he told me that he doesn’t trust her.’

Lillian stares at her, silent. Has Sienna read this all wrong? Perhaps she is about to jump to Abby’s defence.

‘Well, that doesn’t surprise me at all,’ Lillian says finally, and this is more than Sienna could have hoped for.

‘Really? Do you know something? Has she done anything like this before?’ She tries to tone down her eagerness: her words and actions need to come across only as concern.

‘This sounds like exactly what she did to Rob. He was in another relationship when they met. A lovely girl called Tamara. We couldn’t have wished for a nicer daughter-in-law, but Abby put paid to that.’ Lillian flicks her eyes in disgust. ‘She fixated on Rob, made sure she got him no matter the cost. And I’m sorry to say this but it sounds identical to what she was doing to your husband.’

Sienna digests these words, tries to make sense of them. This is a very different story to the one Abby presented her with the night Sienna stayed at her house. The one where she wasn’t interested in Rob as more than a friend. And Rob’s admission that he is the one in their relationship who loves more backs this up. It’s clear that Lillian dislikes Abby, and Sienna senses that the woman wants to believe this is what happened in her son’s relationship. To Sienna, though, it’s not important. All she needs is for Lillian to believe her.