Read Online The Date: An unputdownable psychological thriller with a breathtaking twist by Louise Jensen - Free Book Online

he’d accuse me of nagging, the same if I mentioned expanding our family, and that stung. Last year we’d decided the time was right to try for a baby,but he gradually stopped wanting me. Sometimes my fingers stretched towards him in the still of night, but he’d roll over, breathing deeply as though he was asleep, while rejection flicked its pointed tail and fed off my humiliation.
    Our marriage was slowly unravelling but still I tried to bind it back together with threads of patience, love and home-cooked meals. One Friday Jules and herhusband, Craig, had come to dinner, as they often did. Before they arrived Matt had let slip that Craig was having an affair.
    ‘You’re not seeing anyone, are you?’ That was my instant thought and, as uncomfortable as it was, it would explain a lot.
    ‘No.’ One lonely, exposed word I wanted wrapped in ‘of course I wouldn’t’ or ‘there’ll never be anyone else for me but you’.
    ‘Howlong have you known about Craig?’
    He shrugged. ‘A few months.’
    ‘You’ve been lying to me?’ It rocked me to my core. It was as if I didn’t know him anymore. Couldn’t trust him.
    ‘I’ve got to tell her,’ I said. ‘She’s my best friend.’
    ‘Your loyalty should be with me,’ Matt said. ‘What about the business?’ Craig was his biggest client. Before I could answer the doorbellchimed.
    The whites of Jules’s eyes were streaked pink, and she sniffed as she trailed me into the kitchen. ‘I found condoms in Craig’s coat pocket when I was looking for some change. I haven’t confronted him yet. I wanted to talk to you first. Do you think he’s having an affair?’ I’d hovered on the crossroads of truth and lies but my hesitation told her all she needed to know. She dissolvedinto tears and I led her to a chair and held her as her body shook, while the Beef Wellington charred in the oven. Sitting at the kitchen table, she’d drained a large glass of wine, while I falteringly told her what I knew, and shortly after she’d snapped at Craig that they were leaving. The front door slammed a whirlwind of fury; Jules’s scorching anger as black as the pastry I’d lovingly rolledout.
    ‘How could you?’ Matt rounded on me. ‘You’d better not have lost me my biggest client.’
    ‘If you’re more worried about your business than you are my oldest friend, you’re not the man I married,’ I shouted back.
    ‘Perhaps I don’t want to be,’ he yelled.
    ‘What? That man or married?’ I stood, hands on hips, smoke still pluming from the oven.
    ‘Both.’
    Thefabric of our relationship hung looser after that night. Gaping holes where loyalty and respect should be. Jules discovered Craig’s affair had been going on for almost a year, and she moved in with James, who uncomplainingly packed away his Star Wars paraphernalia and moved into the smaller bedroom, leaving Jules with the master. She filed for divorce; Craig, furious with me, withdrew his businessand wouldn’t take Matt’s calls. Matt barely spoke to me. It was hard to bite my tongue when he barked another one-word answer to a perfectly reasonable question; yet, incessantly, I soothed, supported, did everything a good wife should, but there was an impenetrable barrier between us. I became more and more miserable, until Chrissy suggested some space would do us both good and offered me herspare room.
    ‘I’m moving out for a while,’ I said as I stared intently at Matt, wanting him to read my thoughts, know it was the last thing I wanted, but I’d been at a loss to know what else to do.
    ‘Perhaps it’s for the best,’ he said, not meeting my eye.
    Hearing this made my throat close to a pinprick and I had to force out: ‘I’ll go and pack’ but even to me it had been apparentthat my resolve was weak and ready to crumble if only he’d asked me stay, but he hadn’t. Silently, I had clung on to my pride, slippery in my palm, and trudged upstairs to gather my things.
    It’s been four months now.