BooksBarbecue
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

‘What tan?’ Shit, I forgot the tan.

‘I sent you a message, Mom. You replied, said you’d get it.’

‘I think I said I’d try to get it Amber, if I got a lunch break.’

I’m not going to tell her I did get a lunch break. But instead of rushing from one shop to another fulfilling Amber’s empty dreams I sat with Marie and Sienna in Arthur’s pub next door to the salon and actually had lunch.

Amber frowns as she walks away. It seems to me I see a lot more frowns than smiles on that beautiful face lately.

‘If you’re going to continue frowning, Amber, you really should use cheaper make-up.’

‘I don’t know why you put up with not getting a lunch break, Mom. You should join the union, they shouldn’t get away with that.’

Amber’s at an age where she thinks she knows exactly how the world should be run and she’s not afraid to share her opinion. Maybe the kid is right. The simplicity of it all. What’s obvious in the daylight of youth becomes blinded by the shadows of adulthood.

‘I got my highlights done when the shop was quiet on Wednesday, Amber – cost me nothing. Quid pro quo.’

A grunt of disdain, before she moves her attention back to her mobile phone and walks into her bedroom, closing the door behind her.

Chapter Five

I’m sitting with my feet up on the sofa, sipping wine, when I hear the key turn in the door. I wasn’t expecting Tom for at least another hour, if not more. My heart jumps. What am I going to say? I’ve spent hours going round and round in my head, rehearsing the words ‘Do you have another child, Tom?’ ‘Is there something you would like to share with me, Tom?’ But the words have suddenly disappeared, the sound of Tom’s footsteps scaring them away.

He enters the room. ‘You still up?’

I’m usually already asleep in bed at this time on a Saturday night. A full day of bleaching and braiding sends me into a coma once Amber is safely in her bed. But tonight my mind is restless.

Tom is hanging his coat over the back of a dining-room chair when it strikes me. This man – standing looking at the TV, stretching his back while scratching his neck – there is no way he could be hiding such a big secret from me. Tom loves me, I know that. Even if he had got someone pregnant before he met me, he would have told me. Wouldn’t he?