In the Dark by Cara Hunter

Author:Cara Hunter
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2019-02-19T05:00:00+00:00

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Janet Gislingham is asleep on the sofa when her husband gets back from work, and it’s only when she rouses herself and goes to check on her son that she realizes he’s home. Billy is dozing, nestled in his blue and white blankets, in his blue and white nursery, surrounded by soft toys and piles of clothes in a year’s worth of sizes all still in their plastic packaging. There’s no item of babyware Janet hasn’t thought of, bought already or borrowed just in case. And above the cradle, a mobile Gislingham’s equally football-mad brother made for his first nephew, hung with cut-outs of famous Chelsea football players. Drogba, Ballack, Terry, Lampard, rotating slowly in the warm air.

Gislingham is standing at the cradle, and Janet watches as he reaches down and gently strokes their baby’s silky hair. Billy shifts slightly under his father’s hand, making tiny dreaming noises, his little hands curling and uncurling. The love on the man’s face is as painful as loss.

‘Chris?’ she says, her hand still on the door. ‘Is everything OK?’

But he doesn’t respond, doesn’t move at all. All is still except for the baby’s tiny mews. She’s not even sure if her husband knows that she’s there.

‘Chris?’ A little louder now. ‘Are you all right?’

Gislingham starts, and turns to face his wife.

‘Course I am,’ he says, with his usual smile. ‘How could I not be?’

But when he comes towards her and folds her in his arms, she can feel his tears wet against her face.

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