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Back When I Lost You Save as PDF
Chapters (81)
  1. Cover
  2. About the Author
  3. Dedication
  4. Prologue
  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. Eighteen
  23. Nineteen
  24. Twenty
  25. Twenty-one
  26. Twenty-two
  27. Twenty-three
  28. Twenty-four
  29. Twenty-five
  30. Twenty-six
  31. Twenty-seven
  32. Twenty-eight
  33. Twenty-nine
  34. Thirty
  35. Thirty-one
  36. Thirty-two
  37. Thirty-three
  38. Thirty-four
  39. Thirty-five
  40. Thirty-six
  41. Thirty-seven
  42. Thirty-eight
  43. Thirty-nine
  44. Forty
  45. Forty-one
  46. Forty-two
  47. Forty-three
  48. Forty-four
  49. Forty-five
  50. Forty-six
  51. Forty-seven
  52. Forty-eight
  53. Forty-nine
  54. Fifty
  55. Fifty-one
  56. Fifty-two
  57. Fifty-three
  58. Fifty-four
  59. Fifty-five
  60. Fifty-six
  61. Fifty-seven
  62. Fifty-eight
  63. Fifty-nine
  64. Sixty
  65. Sixty-one
  66. Sixty-two
  67. Sixty-three
  68. Sixty-four
  69. Sixty-five
  70. Sixty-six
  71. Sixty-seven
  72. Epilogue
  73. Acknowledgments
  74. Read More
  75. Prologue
  76. One
  77. Two
  78. Three
  79. Four
  80. Follow Merilyn online
  81. Dedication

Aoife is stifling a laugh. ‘You’re very good at this,’ she says and I want to tell her to shut up, I’m concentrating. We still risk Joanne kicking off the minute I open the boot and I have no idea if I can trust her or not.

‘Gerry,’ Aoife says.

‘What?’

‘Tell her Gerry is in the house and he’ll help her.’

I do and when Joanne remains silent I open the boot.

Her face is smeared with tears and her hair is half pulled from her bun. She is cowering, legs pulled up, arms wrapped around her knees. Her eyes flicker left and right before settling on me.

‘Please, Mary.’

‘Do you want to come and speak to Gerry and we can sort this all out?’ I’m quite pleased at how reasonable I sound and I know Aoife agrees.

‘Yes, please.’ She starts to uncurl.

I say, ‘Wait,’ and lower the boot slightly as a man walks past with a tiny grey dog. He glances at me and I smile, but he doesn’t return it and after he walks past he turns back to look at me.

‘Police?’ Aoife asks.

‘I don’t think so.’ But it’s exactly what I’d thought too. ‘Come on.’ I help Joanne out of the boot and with another quick check of the street, I half push, half pull her up the steps and through the front door. Only when it’s closed do I take a breath.

I’m holding Joanne’s arm tight and at an awkward angle. She winces but I hold it there. To tell her who’s boss. She is whimpering like she did the night she arrived on the beach and I want to smack her head in to shut her up.

‘Mary?’ Gerry appears. He looks at Joanne and turns as white as the sheets on our bed. ‘Jesus Christ, what have you done?’

‘Making things right again.’

‘How is this making things right?’

He’s shouting now and Joanne shrinks in the face of it.

‘You’re scaring her.’

He laughs. ‘You’re bloody kidding me, right? I’m the one scaring her. Jesus God.’ He stops speaking and we all stand there for a moment, unsure what we will each do next. I hear a sob come from Joanne and yank her arm.

‘Please shut up.’

She looks up at me, eyes wide, then over to Gerry, whose face softens.

‘Always was a sucker for the younger model,’ Aoife says.

‘I’m going to put her in our bedroom now and lock the door. I will have the key with me, so it’s no use trying to be the hero and letting her out.’

‘And then what?’ he asks as I begin to push Joanne up the stairs.

‘Then I’m going to pour myself a glass of wine and decide what to do next,’ I say.

‘Good move,’ Aoife says.

‘Thank you,’ I reply.

Fifty-nine