C
Laura Hunter
To: Carol Sutton
Tuesday 30thApril 2.10p.m.
He wants to know everything I do. I figure he’s having me followed.
L
Carol Sutton
To: Laura Hunter
Tuesday 30thApril 2.12p.m.
Why would he do that?
C
Laura Hunter
To: Carol Sutton
Tuesday 30thApril 2.15p.m.
He doesn’t trust me alone with the kids.
L
There’s no response and the emails stop there as if that statement had frightened her friend away—or she didn’t want to be involved. I stare at the emails and go back to the diary. I search for the date of the emails and read the pages from the months before she died. I find the usual things that people do. Shopping, buying clothes and trips on the yacht. Then in the months before she died and after Noah was born, things start to change.
May 30
This is the third time this week my phone has gone missing. I know I had it at breakfast. I went to grab a newspaper from Jack’s office and when I came back it had vanished. I went to the landline and called it. I found it beside the bed. Another time, I fell asleep in Noah’s bedroom and found it in the kitchen. How many times do I go into the kitchen? When I mentioned it to Jack, he says that women often get distracted when they have new babies.
I turn the pages and scan the screen, needing to know what happened next.
June 21
I’ve heard footsteps in the hallway four or five times and when I go to look, there’s nobody there. Jack is late home most nights and I refuse to spend my time with the staffbut I’m sure someone is in the house, watching me. Just this morning I caught the reflection of a woman’s face in the mirror above the sideboard. I asked Jack and he looked at me as if I’d gone crazy. Have I? I don’t know anymore.
I stare at my phone beside me on the small table and breathe a sigh of relief. It hasn’t gone missing yet but the other things disturb me. I’ve heard noises and then there was the face in the mirror. I didn’t imagine it either. I don’t imagine things. I stand and pace up and down but the diary drags me back. I need to know what happened next. I sit and scroll through a few days of nothing unusual happening and then find an entry about Ruby.
July 15
I don’t need to be told what to wear to a dinner party and having Ruby interfering is just too much to bear. She purchased me a ton of what I call house clothes and Jack promised to take me to New York to select evening attire. How dare Jack send her to choose a dress for me to wear? Doesn’t he know me well enough to trust me to select my own clothes? It’s an executive dinner party, so I’ll wear black and white. A little black dress and shoes will do nicely, although they should always drip designer labels, as is fitting for his wife. So, when she arrived with frills and silk, I sent her away and all hell broke loose. Jack came storming into my bedroom and ordered me to take Ruby’s advice and to apologize to her for being rude. I told him, I’ll do no such thing, so he locked me in my room. At six I heard his car starting and looked out of the window. He’d taken Ruby to the dinner party. A short time later Sue came and opened the door.
July 16
Jack didn’t return until breakfast. He said nothing and gave me no explanation. I need space from him and, with Jenny caring for the children, as usual, I take a walk in the garden. I have scissors in my basket to collect flowers. As I walk into the shadows alongside the garden beds, I hear footsteps crunching in the gravel. I turn but no one is there. I move on, and they come again. I chance a glance over one shoulder but see no one. Is Jack having someone follow me in the garden? If so, why?
I swallow hard. The implications of Laura’s rambling notes make me wonder if she was of sound mind. Had Jack been coping with an unstable woman? Could this be why he didn’t trust her alone with the kids and why he believes she took her own life? I need to know. I close the laptop and slide it into my underwear drawer. Right now, I don’t want anyone knowing what I’m doing.
I cast my mind back to seeing the face in the mirror above the sideboard. Laura saw the same face over seven years ago, so why did I see it? A cold shiver raises the hairs on my arms. I’ve only been living here for a short time. I had a frosty start but now I get along with everyone just fine, so why are unusual things happening to me too? Is someone in the house trying to make Jack believe I’m unstable just like Laura? Why would they do such a thing and what do they have to gain?
EIGHTEEN
