I SEE YOU an unputdownable psychological thriller with a breathtaking twist by PATRICIA MACDONALD (fb2 epub reader .TXT) 📕

studying her father’s stony face. Adam pulled out a chair for Hannah then pulled out the one beside her for himself.

Lisa looked at them ruefully. ‘You took your time getting here. I thought you’d never come.’

Hannah avoided her daughter’s gaze. Adam stared back at Lisa steadily, unsmiling. ‘This is not a social call,’ he said.

For a moment Lisa looked taken aback. Her parents’ support, no matter what, had been a constant in her life. She stared at them, puzzled, trying to make sense of the change in their attitudes. ‘What is this? You look like you’re here to scold me.’

‘Not exactly,’ said Hannah quietly.

‘Well, what’s the matter, then?’ Lisa demanded. ‘Is this about the trial? You were the one who was telling me how happy I should be because we won. Remember? And if this is about the check, I told you, Troy gave me that money. No matter what that jury believed, that’s what happened. I thought my own parents would believe me.’

‘No, Lisa,’ said Hannah. ‘Stop. It has nothing to do with that.’

‘Just for the record,’ said Adam, ‘I don’t believe you. Not about the check. Not about Troy.’

Hannah gave him a warning glance. ‘Adam, please don’t,’ she said.

‘Thanks a lot, Dad,’ said Lisa, pushing her glasses back up on the bridge of her nose. ‘I really appreciate that. So why the hell did you bother to come?’

Adam’s eyes flashed angrily but he did not reply.

‘We have to talk to you about something,’ said Hannah.

Lisa looked from one to the other with narrowed eyes. ‘What?’

Hannah folded her hands on the worn tabletop which separated her from her daughter. ‘It’s about Sydney.’

Lisa did not ask if there was anything amiss with her daughter. ‘What about her?’ she demanded.

Hannah took a deep breath and looked down at her folded hands. Before she could speak, Adam blurted out, ‘We want you to give us sole custody of her. Legally.’

Lisa’s eyes widened in anger. Then she looked from her father to her mother, as if challenging Hannah to refute what Adam had just said. ‘Is that true?’ she asked. ‘Is that why you’re here?’

Hannah nodded.

‘I’m in jail for two months and you want me to give up my rights to my child?’ she asked mockingly.

‘We are worried. We have good reason,’ said Hannah, her voice trembling.

‘Why would I do that?’ Lisa demanded. ‘That’s ridiculous.’

Adam reached into the breast pocket of his jacket and pulled out the letters from the post-office box. He set them down on the table as if they were explosive.

‘Because we have these,’ he said.

‘Adam, wait,’ said Hannah, worried that he was moving too quickly with Lisa.

Lisa stared at the letters on the table. ‘What are those?’

‘They came from your post-office box,’ said Adam calmly.

Lisa blanched. ‘What? How did you . . . ?’

‘Does it really matter how?’ he asked wearily. ‘We have them. That’s all that really matters. We just need you to agree to give up your rights to Sydney.’

Lisa did not pretend that she didn’t know about any post-office box. She picked up one of the letters, almost curiously, and then tossed it aside. When she looked up at her father, her eyes were hard and glittering. Her face was frozen into an expression of contempt. ‘Oh, I don’t think so,’ she said.

TWENTY-FOUR

Hannah searched her daughter’s face for some sign of guilt or embarrassment. There was no shame in Lisa’s eyes. No regret, or even uneasiness. Simply defiance. ‘Lisa, we’ve read these letters. We know . . . everything,’ said Hannah.

‘So let me get this straight. You broke into my post-office box?’ Lisa asked. ‘That’s a federal crime, isn’t it?’

Adam’s jaw sagged as if she had punched him. His hands were balled up into fists, and he was shaking. ‘You have the nerve to talk to us about a crime?’

Hannah spoke sharply in a low voice to her daughter. ‘Look, your father is right. We know that you have been soliciting men to have . . . I can’t even say it. It’s too disgusting to even say it. When I think of what you were suggesting about your own baby. Please, have the decency to be ashamed of yourself.’

Lisa turned and looked at her mother earnestly. ‘Mother, I never meant for you to know about this. I knew you wouldn’t understand.’

Hannah gasped. ‘Understand? What is there to understand?’

‘All right, look. I’m not unaware of what the world thinks about . . . unusual sexual tastes. I get it. But you need to try and expand your way of thinking a little bit. I’m not like you. I’m sure you two have done everything the same in bed for twenty years. That may be OK for you but it’s not for me. Besides, I don’t want to hurt Sydney. I wouldn’t allow anyone to hurt her. I was very specific about that in my ad. I want her to enjoy it.’

‘Oh, for Christ’s sake,’ Adam gasped.

‘You know that what you are talking about is a crime,’ said Hannah. ‘A heinous crime.’

‘I’m talking about pleasure,’ Lisa insisted. ‘Excitement.’

Hannah closed her eyes. ‘Don’t say another word, Lisa. This conversation cannot continue.’

Lisa looked vaguely affronted. ‘You’re the ones who brought it up. I’m only trying to explain. You’re insisting on an explanation.’

Adam gripped one hand over his other fist, as if to prevent himself from reaching up and striking her. ‘We don’t need any explanations, Lisa. I don’t know how you turned into this . . . this . . . abomination. It doesn’t matter.’

‘I’m the same person I always was,’ she insisted. ‘What happened to your great love for me? That’s all I ever heard growing up. How much you loved me.’

Hannah stared at her daughter as if from a great distance. Lisa made it sound like it had been a burden to constantly hear