The Marriage Trap: A completely addictive psychological thriller

by Sheryl Browne

  ‘Karla, please open the door, darling,’ my mother calls again, as I press my hands hard to my ears, trying to block out his snoring, which is reverberating in my head. ‘Please come out and let me talk to you.’

  I was unconscious, Sarah says.

  But did he hurt you? I ask the question I’ve asked over and over that’s driven me halfway to madness. Did he touch you?

  I couldn’t breathe. That’s why I died. He suffocated me, but he didn’t touch me, Sarah finally answers me. I didn’t die because of you. I died because of him.

  I close my eyes, relief flooding every vein in my body. I’d thought that he… For so long, I’d wondered. Even in my childhood, it occurs to me, I must have known that my father was a man who was deeply flawed. Did he deserve to die for what he’d done? For causing so much hurt? For killing Sarah? For killing me?

  I don’t know. I’m so tired of searching for answers. Keeping secrets. The tears and the lies and the arguments. I crave sleep; deep, dark and dreamless. Escape from my conscience.

  Will I hurt when I land, I wonder? Will the physical pain be harder to bear than the emotional pain? I can’t endure that any more. I glance to my side, down to the bone-crushing ground below. I’m watching a leaf curl and flutter gently in the wind when my phone rings, causing me to jolt.

  Jason. Hope rises inside me as I recognise his ringtone. He will have seen the papers or heard the news. By now, he will know that this latest story has broken. How will he feel when he realises how twisted a story it’s become? What will he do then? Stifling the sob climbing my throat, I pull my phone from my pocket, and accept the call. I don’t speak.

  ‘Karla, where are you?’ he shouts, his voice frantic.

  Lost, I want to cry. I can’t find me. I don’t know me. ‘Watching the leaf,’ I say weakly instead.

  ‘Watching the leaf where, Karla?’ Jason asks carefully.

  I hesitate. Why does he want to know? He’s not likely to come to me when he’s halfway to the airport to meet his fantasy.

  ‘Karla, please…’ he begs, his voice filled with emotion.

  ‘In the window,’ I tell him. He won’t come. He’s salving his own conscience, that’s all. Checking to make sure I’m functioning. He will lie to me, probably. Tell me he’s not going to try to steal my children. But he is. I know he is. He was going to take them to her. I know this, I want to rage at him. But she’s not there. I’m not here. Don’t you see?

  I gulp back a sob. Jessie is me!

  ‘Which window, Karla? Please tell me,’ he asks.

  ‘The bedroom. Our old room,’ I supply. ‘Sarah’s here with me.’

  ‘Fuck,’ Jason utters. ‘Stay where you are, Karla. Don’t move. Promise me you won’t move.’

  ‘I’m cold,’ I say instead.

  I don’t move though, even when I see my mother appear from the front door, her face horrified as she looks up at me.

  ‘Karla, please…’ she says wretchedly. ‘Get down, sweetheart. I should have told you; I know I should have. We’ll talk now – I’ll tell you anything you need to know – but… Please get down from there, Karla. For Holly and Josh…’ She breaks off, her voice catching.

  Holly. Josh. My babies. My heart constricts. I’m no good to them. They don’t want me. They want their father. But… they need me. I need them. I can’t live without them. Without anything or anyone. ‘He’s taking them,’ I cry. ‘He’s stealing them.’

  ‘He’s not,’ my mother assures me. ‘I’ve spoken to him. I told him about Michael, Karla. He’s on his way here now. He— Oh, thank God.’

  I follow her gaze and my heart rate spikes. He’s here. My husband. A good husband. Was. Once. I look down at him, raw grief flooding through me at the thought of losing him. That I might already have lost him. I thought I could make him love me again, if he remembered who I was. Instead, I’ve made him loathe me.

  His face deathly pale, Jason looks up at me. ‘Karla?’ he says softly, and I feel as if my heart might fracture completely.

  ‘Jason, please do something.’ My mother flies towards him. ‘She won’t budge. The bedroom door’s locked. I’ve tried—’

  ‘Where the hell have you been?’ Jason snaps, catching hold of her arms and moving her aside.

  ‘With Michael,’ she answers ashamedly. ‘He has a wife. I needed to talk to him. I… Jason, none of that matters now. Please—’

  ‘Christ, you and your fucking husband deserve each other, do you know that?’ Swiping the rain from his face, Jason turns back to me. ‘Karla, please look at me,’ he says, his voice choked.

  I don’t answer. I can’t look at him.

  Jason takes a step towards the house. ‘Karla, I’m coming in,’ he warns me, a determined edge to his voice. ‘Just stay—’

  ‘So you’re not coming to meet me then?’ I ask him tauntingly, making sure to accentuate the lilting brogue I know he loves so much. ‘And there was me thinking I’d found me a nice, honest man. Ah well, it’s back to the douches and bad pick-up lines, I suppose.’

  ‘What?’ Stopping, Jason shakes his head, confounded.

  Look at me! I stare down at him, will him to look at me properly, to open his eyes and to realise. ‘You know, you really shouldn’t be going making promises you can’t keep, Jason Connolly.’ I stop – and wait. Watch the colour drain from Jason’s face as he tries to process this, to comprehend that his fantasy, his illusion of the perfect woman, is me.

  ‘Jesus Christ.’ Emitting a stunned laugh, he squints hard. ‘Jessie?’

  ‘The woman you want me to be,’ I answer. ‘I was coming to meet you at the airport. I was going to surprise you, but…’ That was my plan, before I got sidetracked by the urgent need to kill the man who is not my father. Would Jason have been disappointed, realising that Jessie was me? I think he would. Perhaps fate intervened for a reason. I don’t think I could have borne that.

  ‘Karla?’ he asks confusedly. ‘I… Karla, please listen to me. Please, don’t…’ He trails off, struggling, clearly, to know what to say. The rain is spattering his face, wetting his hair, running in rivulets over his high cheekbones. My man. So handsome.

  A heartbreaker.

  I don’t reply. How can I, when it’s not me he wants.

  ‘Karla,’ he calls, more forcefully.

  It’s Jessie he wants. This part of me, but not all of me. ‘Why are you taking my babies?’ I ask him, pulling my arms tighter about myself, trying to compress all that’s inside me.

  ‘I’m not taking them,’ Jason assures me. ‘They’re in the car, just around the corner. They’re waiting to see you. Karla, please…’ He stops, his voice cracking. ‘Get down from the window.’

  ‘Why? You don’t want me,’ I remind him of this painful fact. ‘You’ve forgotten I existed.’

  Jason closes his eyes. ‘I didn’t forget you,’ he says hoarsely. ‘I could never – would never. I thought I had to, for the children’s sakes, for your sake.’

  Sarah’s not happy with that. Bullshit, she hisses.

  ‘Not for your own sake?’ I ask him.

  Drawing in a ragged breath, Jason nods slowly. ‘I … was lonely,’ he admits, now sounding as defeated as I feel. ‘I didn’t know how to be without my family. Didn’t want to be. Don’t want to be. Please… climb down. I’m begging you.’

  ‘Seems to me that you did,’ I point out. ‘You were going to teach me to skydive, do you remember?’ I add pointedly. ‘And sail and windsurf and abseil. We were going to go on adventure holidays. Didn’t you tell me we would always stay invested in each other; that we were going to scale mountains together, you and I?’

  Jason swallows hard. ‘Yes,’ he says ashamedly.

  ‘I like the idea of the Andes, in Peru.’ I fix my gaze hard on his. ‘Do you?’

  ‘I do.’ Jason kneads his eyes with his forefinger and thumb. ‘I’d very much like to climb those mountains with you. You’re my wife, Karla. The mother of my children. Please come down. Holly and Josh would very much lik
e to see you.’

  ‘Would they?’

  I doubt this. Poor, sensitive little Josh is scared of the monster, and Holly positively hates her.

  ‘They would,’ Jason says, his voice tight with emotion. ‘They don’t want to wake up crying in the night any more, Karla. Please, for them, climb down.’

  I focus on him, my heart thrumming wildly as I try to read his expression – to see whether he might really want me, his imperfect wife – and then I tear my gaze up sharply.

  ‘Mummy!’ Holly screams, staring aghast at me from the street. ‘Come down, Mummy – please.’

  She’s crying. My baby. She needs me! ‘I’m coming, sweetheart.’ I push my hands against the ledge, the heels of my shoes scuffing for purchase as I attempt to lever myself up. ‘I’m—’ But my words are lost on the wind. My heart flips as my hand slips, and my scream is drowned out by the sudden wail of a siren.

  I feel my bones move jarringly as I land. The thud, it’s softer than I thought it would be. I feel nothing at first, and then a tingling sensation through my body, but it doesn’t hurt as much as I imagined it would. I can’t see very much past the blinding white light. Snapping teeth with sharp, jagged edges dance across my vision.

  Concussion, Sarah whispers.

  I hear, though, my husband weeping; feel his warm breath next to my cheek. He has me, his strong arms gently encircling me. ‘You caught me,’ I whisper, incredulous, because somehow, I realise, he must have.

  ‘I let you fall,’ Jason murmurs. ‘I should never have… I am so sorry. So, so sorry.’

  Shh. ‘I know.’ I try to reach out to him, but things don’t quite seem to be functioning. ‘So, would you swim the Irish…’ I stop, emit a short, sharp cough, and swallow back the metallic taste in my throat.

  ‘All of the seas,’ Jason assures me, wiping the blood from my mouth with the pad of his thumb. ‘Don’t leave me, Karla,’ he begs, a tear falling from his eyelashes as he lowers his forehead gently to mine. ‘I can’t climb this mountain without you. Please forgive me.’

  Can I?

  EPILOGUE

  DIANA

  His lips had still held the sweet piquancy of forbidden fruit: Michael Kinsella. Karla and Sarah had adored him. In her mind’s eye, Diana could see the girls walking with him on one of their outings. Just five years old, they’d placed their tiny hands trustingly in Michael’s as they skipped along beside him, chattering excitedly as they went.

  Robert had been away, on one of his business trips, where he would no doubt wine and dine and bed his latest conquest. They’d been going on the popular Blossom Trail that day. She hadn’t talked of Robert. Michael hadn’t talked of his wife. They’d simply enjoyed each other’s company, the ice cream, the picnic she’d prepared.

  Closing her eyes, Diana recalled Karla and Sarah sitting opposite Michael, their earnest eyes fixed on his, their faces a picture of studiousness as they’d watched him. Michael’s melodic laughter – she heard it as Karla emulated him, carefully enunciating each roll and lilt of his accent. She’d been a budding little actor even then: inventing stories; performing plays in the back garden and inviting the neighbourhood children. And charging them for the show, Diana remembered, her mouth curving into a smile. Robert had said she was taking after him.

  Diana’s heart saddened at the thought of her husband. His reputation had meant everything to him, more than any woman ever could. That was gone now. She still didn’t know the whole truth about what had happened on the night Sarah had died. She wished she hadn’t banned Robert from the marital bed whenever he’d been drinking. But it was what it was. She couldn’t undo it. She’d carried her guilt. He’d carried his. Perhaps, when Karla was stronger, she would be able to visit her at the hospital and ask her.

  Assuming Karla would talk to her. Assuming she wasn’t in prison. Would Michael visit her if she was, she wondered? He would. He’d always been there for her. That was the thing about love, she supposed: it knew no restraints. She wished she could have learned to love Robert a little better.

  At least now the media couldn’t hound him to his grave. That was one small mercy.

  Wishing he might rest peacefully in death where he never had in life, Diana slipped on her coat – and turned to accompany the police officers through the throng of reporters to the waiting car.

  If you couldn’t turn the pages of The Marriage Trap fast enough, you will love The Affair – an addictive psychological thriller that will have you hooked from the first page.

  * * *

  Get it here!

  THE AFFAIR

  Get it here!

  * * *

  The moment she opened her eyes, she knew everything had changed. The stale taste of alcohol; her uneasy stomach. She looked at her husband sleeping peacefully, and knew she would never tell anyone what happened last night.

  * * *

  You will think you know what happened to Alicia that night.

  * * *

  You will see a desperate wife, lying to her husband.

  * * *

  You will watch a charming lover, trying to win her back.

  * * *

  You will judge her, just like everyone else.

  * * *

  You will assume you know what happens next. But everything you think you know about the past, the relationships, what drives Alicia and her husband to lie… is wrong.

  * * *

  If you loved The Girl on the Train, The Wife Between Us and The Sister, you’ll love this compelling and gripping psychological thriller from Sheryl Browne. The Affair will have you hooked from the very first page!

  * * *

  Available here!

  HEAR MORE FROM SHERYL

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  BOOKS BY SHERYL BROWNE

  The Babysitter

  The Affair

  The Second Wife

  The Marriage Trap

  AVAILABLE IN AUDIO

  The Babysitter (Available in the UK and the US)

  The Affair (Available in the UK and the US)

  The Second Wife (Available in the UK and the US)

  A LETTER FROM SHERYL

  Thank you so much for choosing to read The Marriage Trap. I really hope you’ve enjoyed it. If you did enjoy it, and want to keep up-to-date with all my latest releases, just sign up at the following link. Your email address will never be shared and you can unsubscribe at any time.

  Sign up here!

  Beginning a book with the end of a marriage wasn’t the easiest place to start. My aim was to examine how a seemingly solid relationship ended up so fractured. What influences came to bear? No one can truly know the person they live with, the secrets they might keep, the lies they might tell, the experiences in childhood that shape who they are. I’ve endeavoured to strip away the layers and share with readers a little of what lies beneath the surface. The Marriage Trap looks at the impact a manipulative or bullying parent can have on a child, and the resultant emotional vulnerability that child will carry into adulthood and inevitably into their relationships. It looks at the lengths someone will go to to preserve themselves at whatever cost to those around them, even those they’re supposed to love and protect. It also looks at the strengths people might find within themselves to try to rescue their relationship. Sadly, there are people in the world who abuse or use other people. Often the people on the receiving end of that abuse feel powerless, blaming themselves in some way. They keep secrets because they are ashamed of what they imagine was their culpability. I started with a broken marriage therefore, and tried to find out what broke it. What effect a domineering parent might have on a child, a misogynist on a woman. The consequences for his family – and, ultimately, himself.

  As I write this last little section of the book, I woul
d again like to thank those people around me, who are always there to offer support, those people who believed in me, even when I didn’t quite believe in myself.

  To all of you, thank you for helping me make my dream come true.

  If you have enjoyed the book, I would love it if you could share your thoughts and write a brief review. Reviews mean the world to an author and will help a book find its wings. I would also love to hear from you via Facebook or Twitter or my website.

  Keep safe everyone and Happy Reading.

  Sheryl x

  www.sherylbrowne.com

  THE BABYSITTER

  Get it here!

  * * *

  You trust her with your family. Would you trust her with your life?

  * * *

  Mark and Melissa Cain are thrilled to have found Jade, a babysitter who is brilliant with their young children. Having seen her own house burn to the ground, Jade needs them as much as they need her. Moving Jade into the family home can only be a good thing, can’t it?

  * * *

  As Mark works long hours as a police officer and Melissa struggles with running a business, the family become ever more reliant on their babysitter, who is only too happy to help. And as Melissa begins to slip into depression, it’s Jade who is left picking up the pieces.

  * * *

  But Mark soon notices things aren’t quite as they seem. Things at home feel wrong, and as Mark begins to investigate their seemingly perfect sitter, what he discovers shocks him to his core. He’s met Jade before. And now he suspects he might know what she wants…