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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

I watch him trying not to slurp from the mug. I want to ask him if he knows Joyce? What he thinks about her story? But he’s just a young boy, drinking hot chocolate at the table with his three-year-old half-brothers, making them laugh with his funny faces.

Later that night, after Amber made me sit and watch her try on every dress in her goddamn wardrobe before settling on what she’d wear to Sarah’s party, I rest on the sofa with a glass of wine in my hand. Kenny is in his room, no howls of pain so far tonight.

Tom was itching to go for a pint with the lads, he didn’t ask but I could tell, so I suggested he go out for a while. Truth is, I needed a break from him. I wanted him out from under me. I want to relax on my own, in my pyjamas, on my sofa with red wine. The remote in hand and a mind that needs to be ignored. It’s impossible to do that with Tom in the room.

I thought about asking Donna to come around for a drink but I dropped that idea as soon as it arrived in my head. Knowing Donna, she’d sit at the end of Kenny’s bed and drag his whole life story out of him. Probably have his bag packed and a one-way ticket to Joyce the mystery mother’s manor in the USA. No. It’s best I sit on my own tonight. Especially with that hair show on tomorrow night. I need to get to bed early.

I’ll only have the two small glasses, which is what I’m doing when out of nowhere a thought crashes into my head. She must have told him. Joyce. She must have told Kenny who his dad was.

Tom is adamant Claire McCarthy did not want Kenny to know about him, so who else could have told him? She must have got in touch with him before now, contacted him from the States to tell him who his father was. It had to be her. Suddenly I feel a little scared of the hot-chocolate-slurping kid in the room a few feet away from me. If he’s lying about that, what else could he be lying about?

Glass in hand, I quietly step out into the hallway and hold my ear against the door of the playroom. The only sound I can hear is the muffle of the TV on low. I consider knocking on his door, then decide against it. I’ll talk to Tom tomorrow, see if he can get the truth out of Kenny, because I don’t think he has so far.

Chapter Thirty-Nine

‘It’s important, Tom. I don’t need you fucking this up.’