Also by Dawn Goodwin
The Accident
The Pupil
Best Friends Forever
THE PACT
Dawn Goodwin
AN IMPRINT OF HEAD OF ZEUS
www.ariafiction.com
Aria, an imprint of Head of Zeus Ltd
First published in the United Kingdom in 2020 by Aria, an imprint of Head of Zeus Ltd
Copyright © Dawn Goodwin, 2020
The moral right of Dawn Goodwin to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 9781788549356
Cover design: Leah Jacobs Gordon
Aria
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www.ariafiction.com
Contents
Welcome Page
Copyright
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Then
Chapter 4
Then
Chapter 5
Then
Chapter 6
Then
Chapter 6
Then
Chapter 7
Then
Chapter 8
Then
Chapter 9
Then
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Three Days Ago
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Seven Months Later
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Become an Aria Addict
For my parents, who bought me my first typewriter.
Little did they know…
or maybe they did….
1
The box was heavy in her arms as Maddie Lowe slid the key into the front door and pushed it open. The door swung back hard against the wall, leaving a dirty mark on the crisp white paint that she would only notice later. A bruise on the wall marking the day she moved in. She could hear Greg huffing and puffing behind her as he struggled into the main entrance hall of the small block of flats with more boxes.
Maddie hesitated in front of the open door, despite the weighty box in her arms.
‘Are you waiting for me to carry you over the threshold or something?’ Greg said behind her with a chuckle.
She flinched at the inappropriate joke.
Maddie stepped into the flat and dropped the box at her feet, her back aching as she straightened up.
‘Thank God it’s not on the next floor up. Looks like the lift is broken.’ Sweat had broken out on Greg’s forehead. ‘Where do you want this?’
‘Um…’ Maddie looked around the empty open-plan living space. It looked deceptively spacious with very little furniture in it. Everything clean and sparse, a blank canvas on which to start anew.
‘Anywhere, I guess,’ she replied around the stone lodged in her throat.
Greg headed towards the kitchen area and thumped the box down in the corner. ‘Look, Maddie, I…’ He rubbed at his hair and she wanted to reach out and still his hand, tell him not to do that, that it was thinning there and he would only make it worse.
Instead, she said nothing. His thinning hair was Gemma’s problem now.
An awkwardness filled the space between them, hanging off the end of his unfinished sentence as he pained over what to say next. In the end, she bailed him out again, saying, ‘It’ll be lovely with some plants and bright curtains. Some furniture is being delivered on Monday. A few nice cushions…’ She looked around at her new home. The first place she would have lived in entirely on her own.
‘I hate bloody cushions, but you can have as many as you like now.’ This time he didn’t laugh at his own joke.
‘Right. Well, the next time you come, it will be much more homely, I’m sure.’
He chewed at the inside of his lip. ‘That little garden out there is nice,’ he said, nodding towards the sliding doors on the far side of the room. ‘Could be a bit of a sun trap. You could grow herbs or vegetables maybe.’
Maddie remained rooted to the spot.
‘Right, well, let me get the rest of these boxes in.’ He scurried out and she sighed, looking at the postage stamp of grass outside, so different to the large, landscaped garden she had left behind.
She followed Greg back into the corridor.
A few more trips to the van Greg had hired and Maddie’s meagre belongings and bags of clothes were stashed in the flat, taking up a depressingly small amount of space.
Greg looked around, hands on hips and his legs firmly planted. ‘There we go, all done. Do you need a hand moving these boxes around?’ His eyes darted to the door.
‘No, thanks. I’ve got it from here.’
‘Right, well, I’d better— oh, I nearly forgot!’ He disappeared out to the van again and returned with a glittery gold gift bag, which he held out to Maddie awkwardly. ‘Um, Gemma sent you a housewarming gift, something for your first night in your new home.’ His eyes didn’t quite meet hers as he handed it over.
‘That’s… very kind of her, thank you. I’ll, er, open it later, I think.’ His phone chirped a text alert in his pocket and he looked at it briefly before putting it away again.
‘You should get going. Gemma will be wondering where you’ve got to.’
‘Yes, right, that’s her now. Well, enjoy your evening and call me if you need anything. Anything at all.’ He leant forward as if to kiss her, then hesitated awkwardly, before retreating backwards towards the door while waving at Maddie with both hands, like a politician on a meet and greet.
She watched him go, suddenly not wanting him to leave her there alone. Despite everything, she’d rather he stayed.
She closed the door and turned to survey the room. The air smelled like fresh paint and new carpets. Greg had dragged some mud in on his shoes and it sat on the new beige carpet, taunting her in its filth. He had never been any good at wiping his feet.
The silence was imperfect, peppered with the noise of cars from outside and the hum of the fridge in the small kitchen. But her pulse beating in her ears drowned much of it out. She swallowed around
