The Marriage by K.L. Slater (any book recommendations TXT) 📕

‘Don’t tell me you think Tom had something to do with that girl’s death, because I won’t believe you.’ Jill’s voice rose in panic. ‘And if you’re in cahoots with Bridget Wilson too, then you should have the guts to tell me to my face.’

Audrey placed her hand on her friend’s arm. ‘Jill, come on now. I know you don’t really think that of me. Please, let me finish. What I have to say is very important. About a year ago, Coral told me about someone who loomed large in her life. I was shocked, because all the time I’d known her, she’d never mentioned anyone … a man. I’d misunderstood, though. I’d assumed this man was a romantic attachment, but it was the opposite. She hated him.’

Jill frowned. ‘So what was the problem?’

Audrey felt irritation swell in her chest. ‘The problem was, the man she hated, who was such a presence in her life … he was Ellis’s father.’

Jill’s forehead wrinkled as she wrestled with this information that didn’t match up to the facts she’d internalised. ‘But Jesse was Ellis’s father.’

Audrey reached for her hand, held it tight in her own. ‘No, he wasn’t.’

‘I don’t want to hear it.’ Jill snatched her hand away and stood up, her face reddening. ‘Please leave now, Audrey.’

‘Jill, no! I haven’t finished. I have to tell you—’

She covered her ears with her hands and raised her voice. ‘I don’t want to know. Do you hear me? Go! I want you to go.’ She turned and ran out of the room.

Audrey called after her, but she already heard Jill’s feet hammering on the stairs. Then the bathroom door slammed shut.

She took the sealed envelope with Jill’s name on it from her handbag and propped it up on the mantelpiece. She prayed when her friend opened it and read the shattering contents, she would find it in her heart to forgive her for the terrible secret she’d kept from her.

Fifty-Four Jill

The front door opened and slammed closed again. From the front bedroom window, I watched Audrey scuttle away from the house, her coat done up, head down.

My insides cramped. I’d thought I knew Audrey as well as I knew myself. I would have wagered this very house against the chance she’d ever betray me. Now I knew she’d been in league all this time not with Bridget, but with Coral.

I watched until she reached the bend in the road and disappeared from sight. I went back downstairs, poured a glass of water and took it through to the living room. The instant I stepped through the door, I saw it. A long white envelope with JILL written on it in thick black letters, large enough to read from across the room.

I put my glass down on the coffee table and picked up the envelope, turning it over in my hands. The flap was sealed and I felt a substantial fold of paper inside, more than one sheet.

I didn’t want to hear what she had to tell me because I already knew. I knew what she was going to say about Ellis’s father and the life-changing implications of that … I couldn’t bear it.

I jumped at a sudden noise in the hall – the front door opening. I rushed to the window and saw the silver car on the drive.

‘Tom!’

He stood in the doorway and slid the door key into his pocket. ‘I had to come back to speak to you, Mum. I can’t go on like this, so many things not being said.’ He glanced at the envelope in my hand. ‘What’s that?’

‘Audrey was here. She left me this envelope. I ran upstairs because I didn’t want to hear the rubbish she was spouting.’ But I knew my words meant nothing. I felt the truth towering over us as each second passed.

Two red spots appeared on his cheeks. ‘Rubbish about what?’ he whispered.

I hesitated. Then, sick of all the pretence, I wailed, ‘About who Ellis’s father is! She was going to tell me something I don’t want to hear it. Do you understand?’ I looked at him meaningfully. ‘I don’t want to know, from you or her. I can’t take it, I—’

‘Oh, Mum.’ He stepped forward and wrapped his arms around me. I sobbed into his warm chest, crushing the sealed envelope between us.

I’d waited so long to have my boy back again. My affectionate, loyal son. I didn’t care about Audrey and her petty little secrets.

‘Let’s sit down, Mum. It’s time for us to talk.’

I pulled away. ‘No.’

‘It’s long overdue,’ Tom said carefully. ‘And there are things you should know. Things I should have told you way before now.’ He sat down, but I stayed standing. ‘Let me have the envelope, and then we’ll talk.’

With shaking hands, I held it up. ‘I know already, Tom. I know what I’m going to find when I open this.’

‘Give that to me, Mum,’ he said steadily, his eyes trained on the envelope that held the awful reality I had no choice now but to face. ‘Don’t open it.’

‘Why? Because it’s going to tell me you’re Ellis’s father, not Jesse?’ I tore at the seal.

‘Don’t do this until we’ve talked about it,’ Tom yelped, jumping up from his seat.

‘What have you done?’ I yelled as I backed away. ‘Have you given away my grandson? Is it going to tell me that Ellis is my boy, not Bridget’s? He heard you and Coral arguing about the secret Jesse told you that night.’

I gripped the back of a dining chair for support. For the first time in twenty-eight years, I saw what Robert had been telling me all this time. That Tom, my beloved son whom I’d defended, fought for and believed above everyone else, was actually a liar and a cheat and, to cover up his terrible deed, had deprived me of knowing my grandson for the first nine years of his life.

I gulped in air and broke into