None of This Is True

by Lisa Jewell

four. A life lived in fast-forward and now, apparently, she should peak and crest and then come slowly, contentedly down the other side, but it doesn’t feel as if there ever was a peak, rather an abyss formed of trauma that she keeps circling and circling with a knot of dread in the pit of her stomach.

background: “While I was at work and Roxy was at school doing an exam, he invited

her into our home and he slept with her in my bed. In my bed.”

said—and these were her exact words—‘I might have a gig for you. Give me your number.’ So I gave her my number and then, yeah, a few days later she called me. And that was that. Up to my neck in it. Up to my fucking neck.”