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She hated when Robert got involved in her life. He frustrated the hell out of her.
It’s not Robert’s fault you’re trying to keep secrets from your current therapist.
‘Perhaps that’s because she is weird. Why do we keep getting hassles from that crazy bitch? You said yourself she was loony tunes,’ she fumed, circling her index finger at the side of her head.
Wooow, this judgmental home wrecker sounds delightful !
On the sofa, Elaine’s tearful eyes glared at the phone in her hand. She pressed the End Call icon. She’d heard everything and felt a cocktail of emotions ranging from shock to anger. Both assumed the other had ended the call until Elaine glanced at her phone beside her. Dumbfounded, she didn’t know how to react. Her son’s death had been Robert and Chloé’s fault.
‘You shouldn’t be punishing yourself for what Robert and that French whore did. One way or another, they will pay for what they have done,’ said Margaret.
I’m convinced now her mom’s not real and in her head or something cuz how would she know what her daughter had overhead unless she’s a figment of her imagination ?
No longer was it about an act of duplicitous behaviour; it was about how he’d come to lose Charlie, something no mother could forgive, and there would be serious repercussions.
‘The day you were sent away was awful. I was devastated, and nobody would tell me where you were.’
Both ladies bore scars caused by the men in their lives.
The waitress returned with Ashton’s pint and saw Elaine’s discomfort. Putting his beer on the table in front of him, she deliberately flicked it over into his lap, and quickly apologised. She winked at Elaine, who took advantage of the diversion and left to rejoin Lila and Nicole.
Haha clever waitress
‘I’m Roy,’ he said, backing away. ‘I hope to hear from you soon.’ ‘Oh, you will,’ she said, containing herself while picking up a subtle hint of shyness on his part. Bursting with excitement, she watched him stroll down the drive. ‘Look back. Please, look back.’ Wearing his charming smile, Roy glanced over his shoulder. A euphoric rush tingled down her spine. He stared in her direction again before disappearing around the corner.
Haha we've all been there waiting for the guy to look back at us.
A knock at the front door had Elaine turn to her mother. Who could be dropping by so late? Surely not the police again. ‘Who is it?’ she called out from behind the door. No reply. Raising her voice produced the same response. She opened the door a fraction and peered through the crack. With nobody in view, she stepped outside,
Ok WTH does she keeping doing these things? As a woman without a man in the house, there’s no way I’d be opening my door up late at night to investigate knocks and odd sounds and surely no way I’d step outside. That’s like asking for a home invasion of some sort .
Having seen him numerous times over the past few days, albeit not under the most pleasant of circumstances, Elaine was comfortable around Tom.
‘PC Roy Kell.’ ‘Never heard of him. Must be one of the officers brought in from elsewhere.
Hmm... Maybe he's not a cop...
‘Yep, me and . . .’ Elaine looked around for Emily, but she must have got bored and performed a vanishing act. Kids!
It sounded as though she wasn’t at all happy with many of her choices in life, and things hadn’t turned out quite as she’d anticipated.
There were many things about social media she couldn’t comprehend at the time. She’d learned the world could be a harsh, godless, and desolate place full of empty hearts.
‘You’re in danger. He is coming.’ Charlie pointed to the porch behind her. ‘Beware, zero, six, four, two,’ he said, his voice growing faint. ‘I have to go. You need to wake up. Now!’
the clock on the screen read 06.42. Lying back, she closed her eyes. Opening them instantly, she glared at the clock on the TV, stunned by the numbers. ‘Zero, six, four, two,
one floorboard bore the number 0642. Emily must have painted this while helping out yesterday, but why?
She’d hoped he hadn’t recognised her and didn’t want to acknowledge the man who would take her back to a dark place.
It had been five years, she’d aged a little, and her hair was different back then. A fifty-fifty chance. She remembered him, though. Lenny Grey was not an easy man to forget.
A short, unpleasant pause ensued before she said, ‘I bet you won’t lose her child.’ The words had charged across her lips before she could order a retreat. The truth about how Robert came to lose their son had left a rage simmering inside of her – information she didn’t want to divulge, not yet anyway.
the door, and unlike the downstairs bathroom, this one had no lock.
What kind of bathroom as no lock?
in front of him, she eased his shorts and pants down to his ankles. Standing upright, she encouraged him to sit on the edge of the bath. Ashton released a heavy, expectant sigh as Elaine moved her right hand down to stroke his inner thigh.
I feel like she's only playing along so she can get him in a vulnerable position and threaten him.
She had him right where she wanted him – paralysed as her vice-like grip tightened around his throbbing scrotum.
Ha I was right!
‘Now you listen to me, you bastard. You will never, ever, fucking touch me again. Do you understand?’ He didn’t react. ‘I said, do you understand?’ She squeezed tighter.
He scrolled to the photo gallery and deftly fingered his way to the photographs Elaine had taken at the steam rally, grinning to himself as he browsed through them.
Umm wth?
to Roy, she wasn’t entirely at ease in his company and couldn’t work out why.
She’d previously imagined this moment, and no sooner had their lips fused together, Elaine experienced an unwholesome emptiness. All the wrong signals coursed through her body.
Rather than the sensual spark she’d craved from their first kiss, her expectations were soured by an overpowering sense of foreboding she couldn’t explain.
Hopefully they aren't related... siblings maybe??
‘You know, don’t you, dear?’ said her mother, telling rather than asking. ‘What do I know?’ ‘You know.’ Margaret repeated in a cryptic tone.
The man’s belt and the button on his jeans were unfastened. A sign of his intentions? Rattled by the death stare in his eyes, she reached down and removed his balaclava. Ashton.
Approaching the body, she remained aghast and unable to fathom how this came to be. Ashton had no doubt attacked her when she’d opened the front door, but if he’d knocked her out, how did she fetch the knife from the block in the kitchen?
Dragging the rug back to the car, a heavy rustling in the long grass brought her to an abrupt stop. She scoped the surrounding area and listened, waiting for more movement. All remained still. Probably a fox or some other nocturnal creature.
Elaine breezed into the kitchen and made a beeline for the kettle. Margaret, Michael, and Emily were all seated at the table having breakfast.
Do the kids ever interact with their grandma?
She poured the hot water into her cup, strained the teabag, and turned around to an empty room, thankful to be left in peace.
There they all go vanishing again!
but when he clocked himself in the dressing table mirror opposite, he saw a sad bloke in his early fifties with no purpose or direction. A man without means.
What she couldn’t grasp was why he only wanted ten thousand pounds to keep a murder quiet when she would have paid a hell of a lot more.
He has to be referring to some other secret
half-turn, and a blow to the left side of his head drove him to the ground. The manila folder landed beside him.
She pushed open the huge door, wandered inside, and there he was – her father. There were other men standing nearby. Who were they? One of them turned to face her. He grinned, parading his horrid, yellowing teeth with a large gap between the top front two. The swift onset of sickening unease and rapid, short breaths caused Elaine to step back. The men were cheering and gesticulating. What were they looking at?
Michael went inside and never reappeared. Teenagers!
Why do these kids disappear and reappear like hallucinations too?!
Moving closer to the edge, she briefly watched the ducks before turning to walk away. She took two steps and stopped still, her eyes wide. Looking back, her mouth dropped open. Poking above the water on the far side was the blue light bar of a police car.
She frantically searched the house, repeatedly crying out their names. There was no sign of Michael or Emily.
Do her kids even still exist ? I assumed her mother didn't.
‘My mother. She was – there.’ Staring sympathetically into her eyes, Tom stepped closer. ‘I know she was, Elaine. I know she was. Come on.’ Wrapping a comforting arm around her, he escorted Elaine back to the house.
So she flashbacked ? Her mother had been murdered years ago and she'd blocked it out?)
‘Someone’s taken my children. I can’t find them anywhere in the house.’ ‘The kids are fine,’ Tom assured her. ‘They’re with their father.’
Ok good, so they do exist. Is robert who's been keeping the kids when they were supposed to be at home with their grandma ? Or was Elaine leaving them alone?
‘You were fourteen.’ He gestured with a nod of his head towards the oak tree. ‘You found her over there.’
The glass of water she’d poured her mother in the kitchen. After watching her drink some, she later noted a full glass when removing it from the table. Her tears on the porch when Robert drove off after his visit. They weren’t for that arsehole. She’d wept for her children, who were leaving to go home. The numbers she’d assumed Emily had painted on the porch floor were undoubtedly put there by her own hand. But why 0642?
Yea I caught the water scene straight away
She recalled the nightmare she’d had when the beast slashed her wrists with his long, sharp nails. Her subconscious was re-enacting the terrible moment when she’d tried to end it all and rid herself of the irreparable grief she could no longer live with.
