The Perfect Father: the most gripping and twisty thriller you'll read in 2020 by Charlotte Duckworth

Author:Charlotte Duckworth [Duckworth, Charlotte]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Quercus
Published: 2020-12-01T00:00:00+00:00

I’m watching my usual mind-numbing television, third bottle of beer in hand, when I hear the key turn in the lock. There’s a thump, followed by a giggle, from the hallway. It’s 10.05pm. Not late by my standards, but late for Esther.

‘Oops!’ she says, giggling some more. There’s another thump, and then I realise: she’s trying to take her boots off.

I don’t say anything. The three bottles of beer have somewhat dulled the feelings of fury towards Sarah – that she has everything she wants, even after what she did, that she can still sabotage my career even though we haven’t spoken for ten years – but I’m not sure how I feel about Esther at the moment.

‘Hello!’

I look up. My wife’s face is peering round the door to the living room, grinning.

‘Stone-cold sober, I see,’ I say, choosing sarcasm, my favourite disguise. ‘How much have you had?’

She pads her way over to me, collapsing next to me on the sofa.

‘Not gonna throw up all over me, I hope?’ I say, but the dig goes over her head this time.

‘Sorry,’ she says, muffled. ‘I had a pizza in the bar. Vivienne . . .’

‘. . . made you do it?’ I joke, but I feel relaxed finally.

‘She wants a baby,’ Esther says. ‘They’ve been trying for ages. Nothing’s working. The doctors are baffled.’

I feel my muscles tensing, but I don’t say anything. Esther sits up, twisting her neck to face me.

‘You’re drunk.’

‘I thought you liked me best drunk,’ she says. ‘Vivienne said . . . we used to be so much fun. And then I thought, no, I was never fun, but Robin was. Do you? Do you miss being fun?’

I am frozen, thinking of Kim.

There’s a strange second of tension, before she leans forward and begins to kiss me. She tastes of something sweet – a schnapps, or maybe ice cream – and the effect is so surprising that I find myself kissing her back hungrily, thinking of Sarah and her stupid writing partner and all the accolades she’s taken that should have been mine, and before I know it, Esther’s tugging off my trousers, and it’s as though we’ve only just met.

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.