The Role Model: A shocking psychological thriller with several twists by Daniel Hurst (read aloud TXT) 📕

know I should refuse and take the bottle off her but based on how crazy things have been recently, this is nothing.

It sure as hell beats another argument, anyway.

‘Yeah, why not?’ I reply, shrugging my shoulders before taking a seat at the kitchen table.

Chloe does the honours, placing two glasses of wine down between us before taking her own seat and giving me a half-smile.

‘Cheers,’ she says, raising her wine.

‘Cheers,’ I reply as our glasses clink together.

‘So, are you going to tell me why you fucked Jimmy in the hotel or are we just going to pretend like it didn’t happen?’ she says, raising her eyebrows as she takes a sip of her drink.

I’m sure I’d be well within my rights to scold my daughter for that comment, as well as take the wine off her and tell her to get to her bedroom or get out of the house. But I don’t. I’m simply too exhausted to have another row or keep another secret. Besides, she is behaving like an adult right now, so maybe I should just treat her like one.

I decide that I’m going to tell her the truth about what happened in that hotel room.

I also decide that we’re going to need a second bottle of wine.

30

CHLOE

Mum has just finished telling me about what she really got up to in that hotel room, and while I am shocked at what I have just heard, I admire her honesty. It can’t have been easy to go through with what she did, but it certainly can’t have been any easier recollecting it all for my ears.

Mum had sex with Jimmy in that hotel room. The hair, dress and heels were all as per his request. Obviously, Mum didn’t go into too much detail, and I hadn’t wanted her to, but she had said it had been as awkward, unfulfilling and transactional as one would expect from such an arrangement. I know based on how long I was waiting for her in and around that hotel that she was inside that room for less than an hour, and that was a consequence of both her desire to leave once the deed was done, and Jimmy’s acknowledgement that Mum’s secret was now safe with him.

I have to say that I’m blown away by what my mum has been willing to do to keep me safe over this last week. Not only has she buried a body to avoid me facing police questioning and having my face in all the papers, but she has also just slept with a stranger to stop that truth coming out. I’ve never been in doubt that she loved me and would do anything for me, but it has been put to the test, and she has passed with flying colours. I just wish there was something I could do to make it up to her and show her how much I love her in return.

She’s upstairs now showering while I’m still sitting in the kitchen beside the empty bottle of wine that the two of us polished off. I’m now on tap water, not because I have to be, but because I want to. I’m dehydrated, and I’m not used to drinking much alcohol, never mind a couple of glasses of wine. Of course, it’s different for Mum. She would happily have had this whole bottle to herself if I hadn’t taken it from the fridge and pretty much ensured that we were going to share it. But I’m glad she didn’t refuse.

I enjoyed sitting with her and having a few glasses together. It was almost as if we were two friends catching up rather than just a mother and daughter forced to coexist simply because they are family. It was obviously a shame that the topic of discussion couldn’t have been something lighter than Mum having to sleep with a guy who was blackmailing us but never mind. We tried to make light of it as best we could, which wasn’t easy, but the wine eventually helped with that in the end.

As we became tipsy, we lightened up and were able to almost laugh at our situation, not in a nasty way and certainly not in a way that makes what we have done any better, but in a way that made us feel better, at least for a short while. “Gallow’s humour”, Mum called it, and while I’d never heard of that expression before, I understood what it meant when she explained it to me. Basically, it’s when you can laugh at a hopeless situation. Mum and I know that we face a lifetime of feeling guilty about what we did with Rupert, but we’d go mad if we couldn’t have at least one moment every now and again when we can allow ourselves a little light relief.

But it doesn’t take much for the dark thoughts to return again.

Finishing my water, I leave the kitchen table and head out of the room, crossing through the lounge before heading upstairs, where I can still hear the shower running in the bathroom. I asked Mum if she was going to stay as a blonde, but perhaps predictably, she said she will try to get her natural hair colour to return as quickly as possible.

In her case, blondes did definitely not have more fun.

Entering my room and closing the door behind me, I slump down on my bed and think about putting a movie on to play in the background while I lie here and hopefully drift off to sleep. But before I can grab the remote control and go searching for one, I notice that I have a new message on my mobile phone, which I put up here to charge while Mum and I were halfway through the wine bottle downstairs.

Glancing at the notification on my screen, I don’t recognise the number the message has come from, although it is certain that it was intended for me because it begins with Hi Chloe.

Unfortunately, that’s