The Bridesmaids: A totally addictive and gripping psychological thriller by Victoria Jenkins

Author:Victoria Jenkins [Jenkins, Victoria]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781800199750
Publisher: Bookouture
Published: 2022-05-22T16:00:00+00:00

EIGHTEEN

Suzanne

I find Martha in her room, getting changed. She’s left the door ajar, and through the gap I watch her remove her dress, her shoulder blades flexing as she works her slender arms through the straps. She is ageless somehow – unchanged – time removing nothing from her, only seeming to have added good things, gifting her special extras with every passing year.

She slips on the nightdress she wore yesterday, assessing herself in the mirror as I did last night, turning from one side to the other, scanning every angle. To everyone else, she appears the picture of confidence and success. Zoe is in awe of her wealth and her possessions, while Claire is jealous of everything Martha is that she isn’t. And yet, despite time and distance having parted us, I know so much more than she reveals. Like the expensive dresses she wears, the illusion of Martha is a facade, an elaborately constructed costume that she wears to cover up a pain she can in no other way conceal. I wonder now why, after all this time, she is still so scared to let her true self show.

I tap at the door and she spins at the sound.

‘You made me jump,’ she says, something aloof in her tone. She has been looking at me differently all evening, I’ve noticed, barely bothering to talk to me and only doing so when necessary. I have upset her somehow, or upset one of the others, though I’ve no idea what I’m supposed to have done.

She reaches for her robe where it lies on the bed, putting it on and pulling it tightly around herself, suddenly self-conscious.

‘I’m sorry.’

She waits for more. ‘Was there something you wanted?’

‘I get the feeling I’ve done something to upset you. Holly too. I’m sorry… I don’t know what it is.’

She deliberates over something she’s tempted to say, apparently deciding to keep it to herself; for now, at least.

‘You’re lying to Holly, aren’t you? I can’t work you out, but I know you’re not telling her the truth.’

‘My friendship with Holly is nothing to do with you, Martha,’ I tell her. ‘And why are you lying to her?’

Her eyes narrow, and yet despite how hard she looks, she still doesn’t see. ‘What do you mean?’

‘You’re not being honest about who you are either, are you?’

She laughs nervously, a sharp exhalation of breath that betrays her defiant body language. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. You don’t know me. We’ve only just met.’

‘I know you’re lying to yourself. You’ve been lying to yourself your whole life.’

She looks angry, prepared for retaliation, but there is a flicker of her irises, enough to reveal that she’s unsettled by my words.

She steps closer. Her perfume is beautiful, expensive and subtle. Intoxicating. ‘You seem to have something you want to say to me,’ she says softly, keeping her voice almost to a whisper, trying to intimidate me with her calmness. ‘So just say it.’ This isn’t her; I know it even after all this time.

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