ML Roberts - The Wife – Part Four - Till Death Do Us Part

A division of HarperCollins Publishers

www.harpercollins.co.uk

Harper Impulse

an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published in Great Britain by Harper Impulse 2018

Copyright © M L Roberts 2018

Cover photographs © Shutterstock.com

Cover design by Ellie Game © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2018

M L Roberts asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Ebook Edition © January 2018 ISBN: 9780008259891

Version: 2018–01–18

Table of Contents

Cover

Title Page A division of HarperCollins Publishers www.harpercollins.co.uk

Copyright Harper Impulse an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF www.harpercollins.co.uk First published in Great Britain by Harper Impulse 2018 Copyright © M L Roberts 2018 Cover photographs © Shutterstock.com Cover design by Ellie Game © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2018 M L Roberts asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work. A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library. This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins. Ebook Edition © January 2018 ISBN: 9780008259891 Version: 2018–01–18

Dedication For my husband. His constant support has been everything.

Prologue Prologue Sirens. Blue flashes, bouncing off the glass, blinding me. Noise. So much noise. Voices. Shouting. Words just merging into one long muffled sound. The smell of chlorine. Blood. The pain, brutal and raw. The fear… What did we do…? That night… The night my life changed. The night everything changed…

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Epilogue

Acknowledgements

About the Author

About HarperImpulse

About the Publisher

For my husband. His constant support has been everything.

Sirens.

Blue flashes, bouncing off the glass, blinding me.

Noise. So much noise.

Voices.

Shouting.

Words just merging into one long muffled sound.

The smell of chlorine.

Blood.

The pain, brutal and raw.

The fear…

What did we do…?

That night…

The night my life changed.

The night everything changed…

‘Can you see it now, Ellie?’

He’s talking, but I’m not listening. I’m tuning him out, letting his voice fade into the background.

‘Can you see what’s happening?’

Why is he here? I’m almost sure I told him I wanted to be alone, so why is he in my kitchen?

‘You need to go, Liam.’

‘I’m not going anywhere. I’m not leaving you alone, not now.’

I raise my head slowly to look at him. ‘Why? What are you scared of? Do you think I’m going to do something stupid? Is that it?’

‘No…’

‘Then you can go, can’t you?’

‘Come home with me, Ellie. Please.’

I shake my head. I want to be on my own. For the first time in a long time I actually want to be alone, in this house.

He comes over to me, takes hold of my wrists and unfolds my arms. He takes my hands in his, his grip tight around my fingers.

‘I don’t think you should stay here. This house, it isn’t good for you.’

‘It’s my home.’

‘Pack a few things and come back to mine. Please, Ellie.’

I tug my hands free of his and walk over to the counter. I pour myself a large measure of whisky, but before I can drink it he’s taken the glass from me. Poured the whisky down the sink.

‘What the hell are you doing?’

‘Pack a bag and come home with me.’

‘Just go, Liam. Please.’

‘She’s pregnant, Ellie. You saw that, right? You saw Michael, with her…’

I swing around and stare at him. I’m tired of him now, I don’t want him here. I need to think. ‘We don’t know the baby is his.’

‘Jesus, Ellie, come on…!’

He rakes a hand through his hair, throws his head back and sighs heavily.

‘You want it to be true, don’t you? You want to believe that my husband is sleeping with her, that he got her pregnant, you want that to be true. Why, Liam? Because you think that’ll make me stop loving him? Make me run to you…?’

‘You’ve already run to me, Ellie.’ He moves a little closer, reaches out to touch my cheek. ‘And you didn’t do that for the hell of it. You did it for a reason, you’re just too scared to admit it.’

‘You need to go. Please.’

He pulls his hand back, steps away from me, but his eyes remain fixed on mine. ‘I love you, have you got that yet? I love you so much, and I won’t let him do this to you. I won’t let him hurt you like this.’

I say nothing. I just keep staring at him, hoping he’ll get the message. That he’ll leave, I really do need to be alone now.

‘This is killing you, he is killing you, and I can’t stand by and watch him do that.’

Still, I remain silent. I want him to go, I can’t think with him here, he’s too much of a distraction.

‘Ellie?’

I shake my head. He needs to go. And he does, eventually. But I wait until I hear his car leave the driveway before I move, before I head into the hall, pull the bolts across the door. Make myself safe. And as soon as that’s done I lean back against the wall, close my eyes, and take a second to breathe. A second to let what I saw today sink in.

Her .

Ava.

Pregnant.

My husband, holding her in his arms, her fingers clinging onto his jacket. She’d looked upset. Scared. She should be.