Promise by Jill Childs

Author:Jill Childs [Childs, Jill]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781786816450
Publisher: Bookouture
Published: 2018-09-12T04:00:00+00:00

Two hours later, I am waiting at home for him to come back. Upstairs, the girls are already silent. I’ve had the best part of a bottle of wine and my senses are befuddled as I listen to him parking the car, revving and reversing as he eases his way into the tight space on the road. I don’t move.

Footsteps down the path. His key rattles in the lock. The door opens and he closes it carefully behind him, clinks on the chain. He pauses in the hall and I sense him listening, wondering perhaps where I am. In the bathroom? Already in bed? Finally, the sitting-room door opens and he spills in, bringing the smell of the car and the pub. His look is innocent, genial at first as he sees me there, then it clouds as he feels the tension in the room, as he realises I’m sitting in silence with my hands clutching each other in my lap.

‘Where’ve you been?’ I don’t care any more. I’m done with all this. The wine loosens the tension in me and spits it out.

‘Nowhere.’ He shrugs, sets down his bag. ‘Work.’

‘Work?’

He sighs. ‘Don’t, Tess. Not tonight.’

‘Then when?’ I can’t stop. I can’t swallow it back and go up to sleep beside this man with so many secrets between us, so many lies. ‘I saw you.’

He looks startled.

‘With your lady friend in The Railway. Don’t lie to me. That’s Lorraine, isn’t it? The one who called the house.’

He sinks down into a chair on the other side of the room. His face is blank.

‘Are you sleeping with her? Are you?’

He shakes his head. ‘No. I am not sleeping with her. OK?’ He pauses. He looks weary. Beaten. Caught. ‘You spied on me?’

‘What did you expect?’ My voice rises now, letting out the fear and anger that’s been building inside me for so many days. ‘You’re out, night after night. Come home late. You barely talk to me. What am I supposed to think?’

He doesn’t look at me but I see the anger in his face. We’ve quarrelled before but over small things. Choosing a film. The chores. The children. This is different. We’ve crossed a line and we both know it. I don’t trust him. Whether he’s cheated or not, what we had before is spoilt and I’m not sure what remains. I plough on, unable now to stop.

‘And what about Kate? She’s back in touch, isn’t she?’ I’m on my feet now, my hands in fists at my sides, losing control. I could hit him, I feel it in me. I want to punish him for lying, for taking me for granted, for treating me in the same shabby way he once treated her. ‘Are you going back to her, is that it?’

‘Tess.’ His voice is small and quiet. ‘It’s nothing like that. Please. Listen to me. She wants to meet up, that’s all. At Christmas. Fran’s desperate to see her, to see the two of us together. I was trying to figure out what to do.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.