The Fall by Gilly Macmillan

Author:Gilly Macmillan [Macmillan, Gilly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781529158823
Publisher: Cornerstone
Published: 2023-05-24T18:30:00+00:00

38

THURSDAY

Nicole

At the sound of Patrick’s car, his phone falls from Nicole’s trembling hand onto the stone floor. The corner dents and a spiderweb of cracks appears across the screen. When she picks it up, pieces of glass flake off. The phone is dead. Her hand shakes.

Outside, the car engine dies. A bass still thumps. She can feel it in her chest. Then the music goes off, too.

Move, she thinks. Flee. Patrick has been telling her lies. She can’t forget the threatening words of the man on the phone this morning or the anger and intensity in Patrick’s voice last night. It brings to mind the time years ago when Tom had to intervene as Patrick horribly assaulted that man, and she dreads to think what would have happened if he hadn’t. Patrick’s clearly desperate, and associating with ugly, violent people. She’s afraid of what might happen if he discovers she knows he’s been lying.

It’s impossible to stop him from getting in. His pin gives him access to the house. She can only hide. She hurries through the open-plan space and into the corridor leading to their gym. His phone feels as if it’s burning her hand. She wants to get rid of it, somewhere Patrick will never find it, will never know that she looked at it.

She hears Patrick call out, ‘I forgot my phone!’ Her heart thumps. She jogs down the corridor and slips into the Barn’s fitness suite.

Patrick calls again. Frustration has crept into his voice. ‘Nicole! Have you seen my phone?’

She runs through the gym and bolts herself into the shower room at the back, puts the lid down on the toilet and sits on it. I’m being stupid, she thinks. Hiding will make it worse if he finds me. Her brain is still fighting over the contradiction between the caring Patrick who has been looking after her and the man she’s glimpsed over the last twelve hours.

She flinches at the sound of the door to the gym opening. He must have worked out this morning while she slept in. She should have thought of that. So, he’s come to check for his phone here. Surely it’s only moments before he discovers her.

She considers using her own phone to call the police, but he might hear. She wonders if it’s possible to use it to set off an alarm in the house, but she’d still be stuck here, with him.

She stands up. It’s impossible to access the cistern because it’s built into the wall, so instead, she lifts the toilet seat carefully and drops the phone into it. It’s all she can think to do. She flushes. The phone won’t go anywhere, she knows, but she needs Patrick to believe she was using the loo. She washes her hands, dries them on one of her monogrammed hand towels – her and Tom’s initials intertwined – opens the door and pretends to be startled.

‘Patrick! You gave me a shock!’ She puts her hand on her chest and doesn’t have to fake its exaggerated rise and fall.

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