His Double Life: A completely unputdownable domestic suspense novel by Nicole Trope

Author:Nicole Trope [Trope, Nicole]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bookouture
Published: 2024-02-28T00:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-TWO

MELANIE

Sunday, 31 December

When her phone rings she stares down at it, counting. If it stops after five rings, then she isn’t meant to answer it and that’s good. But it keeps going as she rocks on her soft leather sofa, her hands under her legs. She’s made a deal with herself – ten rings and she will answer but she hadn’t imagined how quickly it would get there. And then it’s over, ten rings and still, it’s ringing. She answers but doesn’t say anything, just listens to the automated voice and then whispers quietly, almost too quietly to hear, ‘Yes.’

‘Hi, are you there?’ he asks, his tone unsure.

‘I’m here,’ she answers, wishing she had given herself fifteen or even twenty rings before she had to pick up.

‘I’m sorry about last week. I’m sorry I told you those things. I shouldn’t have.’

‘I asked. It’s done now.’ She tries to picture him standing by a phone with a line of other inmates behind him. In her mind his face is fuzzy. She remembers a skinny young man with dark hair who hung his head in court, only daring to look up now and again. They locked eyes once. He looked up and she was staring straight at him and she saw, in his blue eyes, a flash of fear, as though she had the power to hurt him. Can she hurt him now? Can she actually make them keep him in prison?

‘I could have found a better way to say it.’ His voice is deep, pleasant to listen to, just a man’s voice. How can he be the person who destroyed her family?

‘You know my mum asked to see the pictures they took of the scene, of his car… everything, but I could never look at it.’

‘I understand that. I’m really, really sorry.’

He is sincere. For the first time since they have started talking, she doesn’t question this. ‘Let’s just… I asked and I wasn’t ready. But I know there’s more to say and I do have more questions.’

‘Okay. How was your Christmas? Is it okay for me to ask that? You don’t have to answer.’

‘It was quiet, as I told you. A small family gathering. But Mum was pretty good. She seemed to enjoy the food and I bought her a cream that smells like coconut, and she remembered a summer holiday we had. We went to a hotel by the beach and it was… it was one of those holidays you never forget. She even remembered Matty learning to surf and getting dunked by a wave. Sorry. I have no idea why I’m telling you this.’

‘It’s okay, I like… well, not like… but I want to hear more about him.’

‘Why?’ Melanie asks. If she was the one who had killed someone, she would never want to think about that person again. She would want to run, to hide from the truth of her crimes.

‘Sometimes it’s easier to not think about the people you hurt, to just put them in a box.

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