Lie Deny Repeat: Who's deceiving who? A shadowy psychological thriller with a shocking ending. (The Detective Jo Boden Case Files Book 3) by Susan Wilkins

Author:Susan Wilkins [Wilkins, Susan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781916901285
Publisher: Herkimer Limited
Published: 2022-09-27T16:00:00+00:00

34

Thursday, 7.25pm

Outside, it’s a wet and windy night. Cheryl is curled up on one of the large squidgy sofas with her daughter snuggled beside her. They’re watching something on the Disney channel. It washes over her; the dancing animals, the jaunty music. She let Sasha choose. Jordan is on the opposite sofa, feet up, scrolling and texting on his phone. But at least she has both her children there, in the same room.

She gave them pizza for dinner; always a popular choice. Jordan ignored the salad that went with it. But she didn’t chastise him. Earlier in the day, she talked the situation over on the phone with her sister.

Lorna may be childless herself, but her understanding, as with most things, seems far deeper than Cheryl’s.

‘You can’t manage him all the time,’ she said. ‘He has to find his own way through this.’

‘I just want to protect him. He could’ve been killed.’

‘Problem is,’ said her sister, ‘he has to learn how to protect himself. How’s he going to develop his own judgement if you’re trying to control his every move? That just makes him react to you.’

Cheryl listened; she didn’t mention Xan’s tracker. She knew what her sister would say about that.

She also knew the arguments Lorna was making, the liberal point of view. Ever since he was little, it’s been let him roll in the dirt, scrape his knees, fall off his bike. She couldn’t be that sort of laissez-faire parent; it wasn’t in her.

She strokes her daughter’s hair. At least Sasha seems grateful for the care being bestowed upon her. But how long will that last? Apart from maternity leave, Cheryl’s always worked full time; a combination of desire and necessity. And their childhoods have flashed by. Only moments ago, it seems, her daughter was a boisterous toddler. But by then, they employed a nanny; Xan had insisted.

She lets her mind drift to her husband. After last night’s argument, he appears to have had a complete change of heart. When she got home from work, he informed her she was right about Arran Patel, and he was going to do something about it.

She apologised and said she’d handled the thing badly. He didn’t really respond. He was in a hurry to go out. A game of squash, he said. But he wanted her to think about the pitch to HDZ; it needed to happen as soon as possible. She didn’t argue. It left her with that miserable feeling of letting her husband down again.

As the end credits on the movie roll, Cheryl looks at her two beautiful children. She loves her work, but now, in this moment, with the two of them, she feels a rush of love and happiness. They give her life the most meaning.

‘Okay,’ she says, clapping her hands. ‘Who wants hot chocolate?’

‘Me!’ Sasha replies.

Jordan gives her a speculative glance. ‘With marshmallows?’

‘Have we got any?’ she says.

Her son gets up and heads for the kitchen. She and her daughter follow.

‘I’m going to need some help,’ she says.

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