Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 115737 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 579(@200wpm)___ 463(@250wpm)___ 386(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115737 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 579(@200wpm)___ 463(@250wpm)___ 386(@300wpm)
‘Everything okay?’ she asks in greeting.
At this particular moment in time, yes. Everything is perfect. I just have to have faith that this all works itself out. ‘For now, yes. Thank you for being there today.’
‘I’d say I wouldn’t have had it any other way, but that would be a lie.’ I smile, fully aware of the trauma I’ve put my friend through.
‘I’m sorry. For lying to you, for putting you through today.’
‘And I’m sorry for judging you,’ she replies, bringing fresh tears to my eyes. ‘Now, don’t make a fuss, but Jason’s taking me to some posh place in Oxford. I need to borrow a cocktail dress.’
I smile at my phone. ‘Come over when you’re ready.’
‘On my way.’ She hangs up, and I go back to pointlessly flicking, snuggling down and flexing my foot back to life.
I’m still flicking when there’s a knock on the door twenty minutes later. Scrambling up from the couch, I go to let Lizzy in, pulling the door open with a huge smile on my face.
But it’s not Lizzy.
My smile falls and every drop of blood drains from my face.
Chapter 27
‘Stephanie,’ I all but breathe, stepping back a few feet in shock.
‘Hey, Annie.’ She beams at me, bright and . . . normal? She looks normal too. Composed and . . . normal. ‘I felt I should apologise for the other night.’ Pulling her bag onto her shoulder, she walks straight in without me even inviting her.
She doesn’t know about me, I tell myself. Act normal! I look back onto the street, mindful that Jack could come back at any moment and change that.
‘How are you?’ I ask, just for the sake of it, because I haven’t the foggiest idea what else to say.
‘Great.’
Great? She looks normal. She claims to be great. What the fuck am I missing? ‘That’s . . . great.’ I smile awkwardly. I need to get her out. ‘I was just popping out,’ I say as non-offensively as I can.
She smiles and I’m sure her eyes drop to my stomach for a split second. No. I’m being paranoid. My stress is playing mind games with me. ‘I won’t keep you. Jack will be home from work soon.’
He will? I’m speechless. ‘You’ve sorted things out?’ I try not to pose it as a question, but my voice is high and squeaky, betraying me.
‘Yes, didn’t he tell you?’
I pull back. Why would she say that? Why would she think that Jack would tell me? ‘I haven’t seen him.’
She smiles again, except this time there’s an evil edge and I’m definitely not imagining it. I’m not being paranoid. ‘Do you think I’m stupid?’ she asks, stepping forward.
My lungs drain on a shaky exhale. Deny it. Just deny it. ‘What are you talking about?’ I laugh. It’s nervous and she doesn’t miss it.
‘All that time you were pretending to be my friend.’
I back away, aware of just how precarious this situation is. She might appear calm, but her words are telling me otherwise. Pretending to be her friend?
She looks volatile. Her eyes are on my stomach again, and her palm flattens across her own belly. She smiles fondly as she slowly circles her midriff, something disturbing in her deep-set eyes.
‘It was you all along. You are a pathetic whore, Annie,’ she muses quietly, looking up at me. ‘He’ll never leave me.’
My flesh goes cold. I mustn’t confirm what she suspects. I need to play dumb. Keep my cool. ‘Stephanie, I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
She sniffs, looking down at her wrist, inspecting it. She’s planning where she’s going to make the cut.
‘It won’t work,’ I blurt, losing control of my mouth, fighting down the anger her subtle hint has spiked. ‘Not again.’
Her eyebrows jump up, surprised. ‘I beg your pardon?’
‘He’s told me,’ I confirm. It’s too late now. ‘He’s told me everything.’
Her lip curls. ‘You’ll be a distant memory by tomorrow, you vindictive bitch. You and that bastard child of yours. A minor indiscretion. That’s all.’
I want to scream in her face, tell her he loves me, but something stops me. It’s not the sudden comprehension that I’m dealing with a woman who doesn’t think twice about lashing out at her husband, therefore won’t hold back from going at me with those talons of hers. It’s the sudden comprehension that she knows I’m pregnant. I snap my mouth shut. She was looking at my stomach. No one else knows I’m expecting. Only Jack and Lizzy.
‘How do you know I’m pregnant?’
She scowls. ‘Jack told me.’
‘No he didn’t.’ Jack wouldn’t do that, not with her being so volatile. He hasn’t even told her about me. Yet she knows. And she knows I’m carrying her husband’s child.
I rack my brain, and quickly step back when something crazy and very disturbing starts to itch at the corners of my mind. I rewind to the night Stephanie turned up unexpectedly at my flat, looking for a friend after Jack left her. She used my bathroom. She had to go through my bedroom to get to my bathroom. My leather slouchy bag was on my bed. My pregnancy test was in my bag.