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Back The Secrets He Kept Save as PDF
Chapters (59)
  1. Cover
  2. Prologue
  3. Chapter One
  4. Chapter Two
  5. Chapter Three
  6. Chapter Four
  7. Chapter Five
  8. Chapter Six
  9. Chapter Seven
  10. Chapter Eight
  11. Chapter Nine
  12. Chapter Ten
  13. Chapter Eleven
  14. Chapter Twelve
  15. Chapter Thirteen
  16. Chapter Fourteen
  17. Chapter Fifteen
  18. Chapter Sixteen
  19. Chapter Seventeen
  20. Chapter Eighteen
  21. Chapter Nineteen
  22. Chapter Twenty
  23. Chapter Twenty-One
  24. Chapter Twenty-Two
  25. Chapter Twenty-Three
  26. Chapter Twenty-Four
  27. Chapter Twenty-Five
  28. Chapter Twenty-Six
  29. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  30. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  31. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  32. Chapter Thirty
  33. Chapter Thirty-One
  34. Chapter Thirty-Two
  35. Chapter Thirty-Three
  36. Chapter Thirty-Four
  37. Chapter Thirty-Five
  38. Chapter Thirty-Six
  39. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  40. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  41. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  42. Chapter Forty
  43. Chapter Forty-One
  44. Chapter Forty-Two
  45. Chapter Forty-Three
  46. Chapter Forty-Four
  47. Chapter Forty-Five
  48. Chapter Forty-Six
  49. Chapter Forty-Seven
  50. Chapter Forty-Eight
  51. Chapter Forty-Nine
  52. Chapter Fifty
  53. Chapter Fifty-One
  54. Chapter Fifty-Two
  55. Two Weeks Earlier
  56. A Letter From Jackie
  57. Acknowledgements
  58. About the Author
  59. Also by Jackie Walsh

‘Amber, sweetie, Ellen is just trying to be nice, she wants to welcome Kenny. You will always be your nan’s favourite grandchild.’ Surprised that she isn’t shouting back at me, telling me I have it all wrong, I walk over and sit down on the bed. Dropping my head onto the pillow beside her, I let tears fall from my eyes without fighting back. Amber turns to look at me. Placing her warm hand on my cheek, she says, ‘We’ll be okay, Mam, we’ll get through this.’

Chapter Thirty-Five

It’s Amber who suggests we get our act together and go downstairs to where the welcoming party appear to be having a grand old time. Ellen’s raucous laughter echoes up the stairway into Amber’s room. Opening her stinging eyes wider, Amber’s face breaks into a mischievous smile.

‘The poor fella… I bet he wasn’t expecting that.’

Releasing a much-needed chuckle, I slip off the bed and look into the mirror. My eyes sting. I take a make-up remover wipe from Amber’s dressing table and attempt to erase the evidence of sadness. Lifting a bottle of tinted moisturizer, Amber squirts some onto her finger before handing it to me. ‘This will do the job.’

When we’ve both done our best to look like we weren’t crying, Amber walks to the door but before she opens it, I grab her close to me and hug her tightly. ‘We’re in this together, Amber, we’re going to need one another. I promise you, I’ll do anything for you. I love you more than you could possibly know.’

Not wanting to cry again, I push her away and follow her out the door to the sound of Tom rambling on about golf. He’s probably got his one trophy in his hand telling Kenny about the ‘hole in one’ he got seven years ago while on a trip in Portugal. Poor Kenny, he has a lot of crap to catch up with.

Ellen is on her second cup of tea when I walk into the room. My earlier disappearing act isn’t mentioned now that she’s been distracted by her new grandchild. Kenny looks like he wants to be beamed up on to another planet. His polite nods and smiles are clearly forced, bearing no resemblance to the squirming taking place inside him.

‘Is there any chance you could hang on for a while, Ellen? Tom and I want to pick up the boys from the crèche before it gets too late.’ This is my opportunity to have a word with Tom out of Kenny’s earshot.