The End of Her - Shari Lapena Page 0,21

her everything – about Patrick’s past and the woman who is threatening them. But she can’t. She must keep it to herself. Even if it feels almost too heavy to bear.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

STEPHANIE STRUGGLES TO get the double buggy out of the boot. It had rained overnight, but now it’s cleared and it’s going to be a nice day. It’s not even 11 a.m. but she’s already been up for hours. She’s had two coffees to clear the fog in her head. But today it’s more than sleep deprivation that’s bothering her, making her forgetful and distracted as she packs for an outing with the twins. She and Patrick are both on edge, waiting to hear again from Erica Voss. And Patrick had been upset last night when she’d told him about the theft of her handbag. He’d insisted she be more careful and called a locksmith immediately.

Her exhaustion makes everything seem even more unmanageable, more overwhelming. How can life throw such curveballs at you? She’s just a normal wife and mother, but now she and her husband are the subject of attempted blackmail. That Patrick had cheated on his first wife was bad enough – she can hardly believe it. And the rest of it …

Last night, they’d discussed going to the Aylesford police. Patrick wasn’t in favour of it. But to her it seems the most sensible plan. Maybe they could charge this woman, or at least frighten her off. For now, they’ve agreed that when Erica gets in touch again, Patrick will tell her that Stephanie knows everything and they’re not going to pay her a cent. Maybe then she’ll go away.

She’s keeping her phone close, waiting to hear from him.

The babies are dressed in their adorable complementary outfits. She has to get out of the house. The best thing is to go for a walk in the fresh air, showing Jackie and Emma the butterflies and the flowers, and then stopping at the park nearby. There, they’ll sit on a blanket by the sandpit with the toys she’s brought and she’ll do her best to keep them entertained. Most days she runs into someone she knows at the park, something she usually looks forward to. She’s not sure she wants to see anyone today, though. She can’t tell anyone what she’s dealing with – not even Hanna, her closest friend.

She lifts the babies into the buggy, buckles them in and locks up the house. Then she gives her girls a smile and a little chuck under each chin, talking to them as she pushes them along the pavement. Then she pulls out her cell phone, takes a cute picture of the twins in the buggy, and texts it to her husband.

He doesn’t respond. Maybe he’s in a meeting. She imagines how difficult it must be to focus on work with all this going on.

When she finally gets to the park, there are a couple of other mothers sitting with their babies on blankets beneath the trees while their older children play in the nearby sandpit. No one she really knows except by sight. She lifts the babies out of the buggy onto their blanket. She has to keep her eye on them, but she quickly glances at her phone. She hasn’t heard from Patrick, and she’s getting more and more nervous. Has he heard from Erica? She threatened him on Wednesday, and now it’s Friday. Is she trying to make them sweat?

She hears her phone ping and takes a quick look.

Haven’t heard from her. Will keep you posted.

She puts her phone away, unhappy. She thinks they should go to the cops. They’re law-abiding citizens, victims of an attempted crime. Patrick hasn’t done anything wrong. The police here won’t be interested in reopening a case in Colorado. She thinks they are their best option.

‘So adorable,’ a woman says, sitting down near her on the ledge of the sandpit.

Stephanie glances at her, pulled out of her thoughts. ‘Oh, thanks,’ she says, smiling absently. She gets this a lot, especially with twins, but no woman ever tires of hearing some stranger tell her how adorable her kids are. The woman looks familiar.

‘Do I know you?’ Stephanie asks.

‘No, I don’t think so. No – wait – I think I saw you yesterday in the drugstore. In the line for the cashier.’

‘Oh, that’s right. I remember now,’ Stephanie says.

‘You were buying diapers and dark chocolate,’ the other woman says.

Stephanie is a little taken aback that this woman noticed what she bought.

‘How old