Sheridan pressed her body against the wall of the lift.
She hated it when he was like this.
‘You’ve been taking too many chances,’ she replied,
feeling small in her sneakers. ‘I was scared Roz would
escape, that they would pin Kelly’s death on us.’
‘So you got your old boyfriend around here the minute
my back was turned.’ Daniel’s anger was rising now, and
they both ignored the lift as it dinged. Aware of her gun
in the waistband of her jeans, Sheridan hung her head.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said, knowing how much Daniel hated
Mike. ‘I couldn’t see any other way out.’
‘How did you get him to agree?’ Daniel was stand-
ing over her now, his body rigid, his fists clenched. He
punched the button to close the doors of the lift as they
began to part.
Sheridan swallowed. How could she tell him that they
had kissed? That Mike’s hands had roamed her body as
she whispered promises of so much more. She had worn
the gun for a reason but lacked the courage that was so
readily available when it came to her female counterparts.
Mike understood about Kelly. He was willing to help.
‘He … he said he’d get rid of the body – for a price.
We couldn’t keep her down there forever.’
She waited for the fallout. Up until now, she had
welcomed Daniel’s possessiveness; she saw it as a sign of
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love. But she had bent over backwards to accommodate
him. Why couldn’t he do the same for her?
‘What’s the price?’ Daniel’s words were spoken through
gritted teeth.
When Sheridan failed to answer, he pressed his fingers
into her jaw. She gasped at the sudden contact. Daniel so
seldom lost his temper, but when he did, he was capable
of anything.
‘I paid him off!’ she cried, her skin burning beneath
his touch. ‘A hundred grand.’
‘Liar!’ Daniel’s eyes bored through hers. ‘I know he’s
got a thing for you. What else did you do?’ His fingers
squeezed tighter with each word, and Sheridan cried out
to be freed.
‘We kissed!’ Sheridan flinched beneath his touch.
‘Nothing more.’ She rubbed her jaw as he released it.
‘I did this for us. If you hadn’t let Roz go to church…’
Her gaze roamed the lift walls, which felt like they were
closing in.
‘This is my fault, then, is it?’ He spoke in a low growl,
pressing her into the corner. ‘My fault that you brought
that scumbag into my home and kissed him while I was away.’
‘I’m sorry,’ Sheridan said, panic cutting her breath
short. ‘It meant nothing.’
Daniel’s nostrils flared as his temper grew. ‘Do you
want to be down there with her? In the mud and shit, with
maggots digging holes in your pretty face?’ He touched
her cheek, his movements rough against her skin. His
fingers fell to her mouth and he forced her lips open. ‘Say no, Daniel, I should have cleared it with you first.’
Sheridan glared at him in disbelief. He couldn’t be
serious … She baulked as he squeezed her lips. ‘No,
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Daniel.’ Her words were distorted as Daniel squeezed
hard. ‘I should have cleared it with you.’
‘Damn right you should have.’ He pushed her back
against the wall. ‘You don’t make a single move without
asking me first, do you hear me?’
Sheridan nodded, blinking back her tears in an effort
to regain control.
‘Where are you going?’ she called after him as he
strode out of the lift.
‘To my room. Some of us have work to do.’
‘What about Roz?’
‘What about Roz?’ He spun on his heel, making
Sheridan step back. ‘You heard what I said. Clean up that
shit-hole downstairs and make her some hot chocolate.
And if you ever neglect my property again, there’ll be hell to pay.’ Grabbing her by the waist, he pulled her towards
him. But it was not to touch her; it was to remove her
gun. ‘You’ll get this back when you can be trusted. Get
washed. You stink of him.’
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Sheridan
Sheridan lay on Leo’s bed, trying not to pull away as he
wound his fingers around her neck. She wasn’t made of
stone. Seeing the remains of Kelly’s body had brought
back the old feelings of guilt and regret. She smoothed
down Leo’s errant hair, staring into the depths of his deep blue eyes. It was hardly his fault the camera didn’t like
him. You either had it or you didn’t. She only hoped his
new sister would be able to pull things back.
‘Why don’t you go back to sleep?’ she said, swallow-
ing back the tears that threatened to overflow. He had
been awoken by a nightmare, but he would soon forget
all about it. She wished she could escape hers as easily.
Daniel was the only person in the world who could
reduce her to tears. Such outbursts were thankfully
rare – as long as she kept things on an even keel. But
tonight, she had overstepped the mark by having Mike in
their home.
‘That’s lovely,’ she said, as Leo pointed at a crayon
scribble on the wall.
‘It’s a dog. Daddy’s getting me one.’ His cheeks dimpled
as he beamed. ‘We’re calling him Jake.’
Sheridan sighed. Daddy did whatever he damn well
pleased.
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* * *
After spending half an hour grilling Juanita, Sheridan
gave her the sack. The girl had pleaded innocence, but
somebody had leaked information to Roz. Checking
on her baby donor was Sheridan’s next unenviable task.
A sense of vulnerability crept in as she ventured below.
Daniel had locked her gun in the cabinet and entrusted the
keys to George. Sheridan’s face soured at the memory. It
was as if she were a child. Her lips were still tender from where Daniel’s fingers had dug in. Sometimes he didn’t
know his own strength.
She would beg Daniel to allow Mike in so he could
finish what he started and dispose of Kelly for good. It
was pure luck that she had managed to sneak Mike out
just as Daniel came home.
It wasn’t just Mike that Daniel was angry about.
Moving Kelly’s corpse had triggered something in him.
The months following her death were the toughest of
their marriage. Sheridan’s fingers touched her throat.
The marks might have gone, but the memory remained.
She recalled when her mother-in-law had come to visit,
not long after Leo was born. Daniel had broken down,
admitted every horrible twist and turn that had led to
Kelly’s demise. For a long time, Sheridan had expected
his mother to turn them both in; but she had taken their
secret to the grave.
Sheridan fixed her face as the lift doors opened. She
would make it up to Daniel. She would start by
being
honest with Roz. With a few words of Spanish, Sheridan
dismissed Anna from the room.
Roz was sitting on the sofa where they had left her,
hunched and staring into space. Sheridan glanced at
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her freshly made bed. The floor had been mopped, the
room tidied, the light bulbs replaced. On the table was
a plastic vase filled with fresh flowers, along with an ar-
ray of food: chocolate muffins from their local bakery,
sandwiches and a jug of juice. Yet not a bite had been
taken from any of it. She cast an eye over Roz, who
was now chewing what was left of her nails. She looked
like a terrified creature, and somewhere deep within,
Sheridan felt sympathy.
‘Roz,’ she said flatly. ‘Why haven’t you eaten?’
But Roz did not reply. Her face was haunted, her eyes
puffy and red-rimmed.
‘You know how this goes,’ Sheridan continued. ‘Stick
with the programme and you get benefits. I’m willing
to overlook what happened earlier because it’s obvious
you’re not well. But we need to get you scanned. I can’t
call the doctor in and have you looking like this.’
‘What’s the point?’ Roz sniffed, her voice thick with
congestion. She must have been crying all this time. ‘I’ll
never see my baby. You want rid of me.’
Sheridan sighed as she took a seat. ‘You think you’ve
got it all worked out. But you couldn’t be further from
the truth. Why do you think we brought you here?’
Roz delivered a one-shouldered shrug. ‘To take my
baby, the same way you took Kelly’s. But now you don’t
want either of us.’
Sheridan snorted. ‘What happened with Kelly was
an accident.’
She paused, the memory returning like a bullet from
nowhere. She had never seen anyone lose so much blood.
Her hands were covered in it. Towels were not enough.
Even after Leo was born, it had dripped down the bed
and on to the floor in a sea of red. She recalled Kelly’s
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grey-blue lips. The life leaving her body as Leo cried
from his bassinet.
Sheridan took a deep breath. ‘She died in childbirth.
But that won’t happen to you. We have a doctor now.
You don’t need to worry on that front.’
But the fact that Roz had guessed the body was Kelly’s
aroused a prickle of irritation. Now that Sheridan had fired Juanita, there should be no more leaks. Sheridan watched
Roz staring, zombie-like, into the distance. The girl was
in shock and of no use to Daniel like this.
‘Remember the first time you asked to leave here?
What did I tell you?’
Roz stared at her, her mouth tightly clamped shut.
‘I said we weren’t just buying the baby, that we were
buying you, too.’ Sheridan crossed her legs, never taking
her eyes from Roz’s face. ‘That’s why you can relax …
we’ve no intention of hurting you.’
‘But you’re not letting me go, either.’ The words were
monotone, punctuated with a snuffle.
Sheridan didn’t deny it. How could she? ‘There are
plenty of women who’d be thrilled to spend time with
my husband.’
Her statement went unanswered, and Sheridan rose
to plate up some of the food on the table. She picked up
a chocolate muffin and coupled it with a plastic tumbler
of orange juice.
‘Eat,’ she said, handing Sheridan the plastic plate. ‘For
the baby.’
She watched as Roz opened the paper wrapping, pulled
chunks of muffin away with her fingers and popped them
in her mouth.
Regret hung heavy in the air. The two women sat
together in silence. How had it come to this?
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Sheridan’s thoughts floated back to when she first met
Daniel, and how she had set her sights on him. But once
things had progressed between them, he’d warned her that
he would break her heart. She remembered his mother’s
prophecy long before they tied the knot. ‘He’s just like
his father,’ she said, but the words were not meant as a
compliment. ‘The more you drag him into domesticity,
the more he lashes out. He’s a free spirit. You’ll never tie him down.’
She knew that Daniel wanted to be monogamous, but
he was a pressure cooker. Too much work and no play
made him blow his top. He’d told her he was scared he
would hurt her, that it would all become too much. But
then came the night when they’d shared their fantasies,
and everything had changed. She remembered the rain
pattering on the window of her LA apartment as they
lay naked together in bed. Cradling his whiskey, Daniel
had spoken in soft tones.
‘Have you read The Collector by John Fowles?’ His
words were fuelled by alcohol, which opened up parts
of him inaccessible to anyone else. ‘That’s as close to my
fantasy as you can get.’
Sheridan nodded, grateful for his trust. ‘You fantasise
about abducting someone? Keeping them locked away?’
‘It’s not real, Sheridan – I wouldn’t be telling you
if it was.’ That much was true. She’d had to get him
very drunk for him to speak like this. ‘But, yes…’ he’d
continued, throwing an arm around her shoulder. ‘It’s
not about sex, and it’s certainly not about love…’ he
paused, his face far away. ‘It’s about control. Bending
the will of another until they’re totally dependent on
you, to the point that if you open the door they won’t
run away.’
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‘Like Stockholm syndrome?’ Sheridan’s pulse quick-
ened at the thought. That’s what she liked about Daniel.
His dangerous side. The people she had grown up with
were on-screen, written in to be picture-perfect and
candy-cane sweet.
‘More like a dirty little secret.’ Daniel paused to sip his whiskey. ‘The satisfaction of knowing I’ve got this whole
other world going on that people know nothing about.
It’s dangerous, a break from the mundane, you know?’
And mundane was the last thing Sheridan needed.
It would be the death of their marriage, for starters. It
would collapse her life like a deck of cards.
Over time she’d begun to justify it. It was no different
to Daniel playing a leading movie role. A fantasy world,
with no outside attachments. She learned to recognise
the signs of his growing unease. Knew when it was time
to intervene. As publicity became fierce, he began to
feel hemmed in. No longer could he ride his motorbikes
or go out in public alone. Work was all-consuming, as
was the pressure to present a clean image to the world.
He needed an outlet. Which is where Kelly came in.
She was a pretty girl, with light blonde hair. Exactly
Daniel’s type.
At first, it was a game. Something t
o bring Sheridan
and Daniel closer. Their own private secret that nobody
else knew about. Sheridan even found herself enjoying
it – until it all became too real.
‘What about her?’ she’d say, browsing online escort
sites.
‘Too slutty,’ Daniel would reply. ‘She has to be whole-
some, innocent. Think girl next door.’
Sheridan should have heeded her internal warning
bells and passed it off as a bit of fun. But as more women
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chased her successful husband, the greater the risk that
he would stray. A cheating husband would jeopardise
everything they had built.
Kelly was perfect. Young and naive, she was a wan-
nabe actress who was desperate to leave home. Sheridan
had been chatting to her for two weeks online when she
told Daniel what she had done.
‘Are you crazy?’ he’d said, running his fingers through
his hair. ‘If she calls the cops…’
‘She won’t,’ Sheridan replied. ‘I’ve offered to take her
in, help her get her foot in the door.’
‘You’re crazy,’ Daniel said, but she could see from his
expression that his interest was aroused. ‘Nobody is that
stupid, and I don’t want some redneck hillbilly…’
Sheridan clicked on the monitor and brought up the
pictures of Kelly’s profile that she had saved. They were
enough to silence Daniel’s protests.
‘I met her through a mentor chatroom,’ Sheridan said.
‘I’ve fed her a line. Told her we’re desperate for a baby.
She’s offered to be a surrogate in return for my help.’
‘You are nuts, Sheridan Sinclair. What makes you
think we can get away with this?’
‘It gets her here, doesn’t it? Think about it. It would
explain why she has to be hidden to begin with, because
we’d be passing the baby off as our own.’
‘I don’t know…’ Daniel said. ‘What if she got
pregnant?’
Sheridan shrugged. ‘Would it be the worst thing in
the world? We could hire a nanny; a baby would get the
press off our backs and do wonders for our profile.’ She
delivered a seductive smile. ‘And Daniel … she’s not averse to getting pregnant the natural way.’
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‘Bloody hell. You never stop surprising me.’ Daniel
shook his head. ‘But … wouldn’t you mind? Having an-
other woman in the house?’
The Perfect Mother (ARC) Page 29
