I’m sorry, sweetheart. We’ll be together again one day, and we’ll have such magical stories to tell. Seeing her sister’s face as she glanced down into the water, she prayed silently. There was no plaintive look in Kara’s eyes any more, no fear. It was possible she might even be smiling.
‘I have to let her go now.’
Jake nodded. He didn’t speak for a while. Then, ‘Can we save each other, Em?’ he asked, his voice choked.
‘I’m not sure,’ she answered. If they separated, they would be making sure that the monster who’d haunted her achieved his aim. He’d wanted them to fall apart. He’d ruined people’s lives to that end. He’d even tried to ruin Millie’s. He hadn’t had a caring bone in his body, no compassion for anyone. Jake was completely different. He cared for her, she knew that without a single shred of doubt. He cared for Millie and for Ben. He hadn’t realised that she was watching from the bedroom window, but she’d seen him come out here after the dreadful events on the day of the fire. He’d stood for a while looking up at the stars, then he’d buried his head in his hands and sat down and wept.
He cared for his patients, every single one of them. He cared for his bastard father too, hence his anger whenever he was around him, the agony in his eyes every time he spoke about him. Those weren’t the emotions of an unconcerned man.
Could she forgive him?
Could he forgive her? They hadn’t had a moment alone together since Paul Lewis had met his just deserts – the animal deserved to burn in hell as far as Emily was concerned. She knew Jake cared, but was that enough? Did he love her? After all she’d felt over the years, imagined or otherwise, she couldn’t contemplate a life where she might be second best.
She braced herself to ask what she had to. She would know immediately whether there was any hope for them. Any way to move forward together. Marriage was a two-way street. Respect and trust were too. Without honesty, they had nothing. ‘Is it yours, Jake?’ she asked quietly. ‘Sally’s baby, is it yours?’
She heard his sharp intake of breath, felt his apprehension. ‘No,’ he said emphatically, after another agonising pause.
She waited. His next statement would seal their fate. Jake would know it. Lies in a relationship, after all, were the worst hurt of all. She’d hurt him immeasurably. His response now would tell her whether they were strong enough to move on, whether he wanted to.
She kept her gaze on the water, sure she could hear the frantic beating of her heart above the gentle swell of it.
‘How did you know?’ he asked eventually, his voice hoarse.
And there it was, honesty. And it hurt, so very much. ‘I’m a woman, Jake, remember?’ Wiping a tear from her face, she paraphrased something he’d said.
Nodding, Jake plunged his hands in his pockets, stared out at the water.
‘How many times?’ she asked.
‘Once,’ he answered, glancing down, his expression ashamed.
‘Recently?’ She didn’t want to know, yet she had to.
Jake nodded barely perceptibly. ‘I have no excuses, Emily, other than that I felt so bloody lonely. The way that you were looking at me when things started to decline so rapidly, as if you truly hated me… I suppose I thought that maybe you’d never really loved me. I started thinking more about Ben, why you could never bring yourself to trust me enough to tell me and … It was a mistake, the worst I’ve made in my life, and I’m sorry.’ He ran a hand over his neck. He didn’t say any more.
‘Do you love her?’ She asked the most important question of all. She couldn’t stay in a marriage where the love had died.
‘No,’ he replied instantly. ‘I care about her, I can’t say I don’t, but I’m not in love with her. Sally … she doesn’t want her marriage to break up. It shouldn’t have happened.’
Emily hesitated. ‘Do you love me? As you should love me, I mean?’
‘I’ve never stopped,’ Jake said hoarsely. ‘I don’t want to go, but if you ask me to, I will. I need you to know that I do love you, though. I always will, no matter what happens.’
It was enough. Emily breathed out. Now she could start rebuilding her world. With her bare hands, brick by brick if she had to. But she would get there – with Jake by her side, God give them strength, because they were a team. They always had been.
Epilogue
‘I still think we should have had a puppy,’ Ben said, gazing down at his new baby sister.
‘Says the man with the soppy grin on his face,’ Millie quipped. ‘I hope you’re going to treat Aurora with more respect than you do her big sister.’
Ben looked up from the tiny bundle in his arms. ‘I put up with your nuisance, don’t I? He gave her a flat smile. ‘And she’s not Aurora, she’s Ophelia, aren’t you, little pickle?’
‘Pickle?’ Jake mouthed, exchanging bemused glances with Emily, who was watching her two oldest offspring with wry amusement. She supposed it was too much to hope that they would stop arguing for a whole hospital visit. Still, at least they were arguing good-naturedly.
‘Ophelia?’ Millie eyed the ceiling. ‘No way. What are they going to call her at school? Ophe?’
‘Lia, obviously,’ Ben retorted, ‘which has to be better than Rory or Rora. That’s a dumb nickname for a … Uh, oh.’ He looked at Jake, alarmed. ‘You’d better take her, Dad. She’s moving.’
‘Yeah, they do that, Ben.’ Millie rolled her eyes sky high.
Jake laughed, and then shot off the bed as Ben held their precious new bundle awkwardly towards him. ‘Careful.’ Taking her from Ben, he eased her gently into the crook of his arm. ‘I’m not sure she’s an Aurora or an Ophelia. What do you think, little one, hey?’ he asked, gazing wondrously down at her as he walked back to the bed.
‘Why don’t you two go and grab a coffee while your mum and I try to think of an alternative to Pickle,’ he suggested, settling carefully down beside Emily and bringing their much wanted – if somewhat surprising – new addition to the family to her.
‘Er, right, good idea,’ Millie said, and waited.
Sighing indulgently, Jake nodded towards his jacket hanging on the visitor’s chair, inside which was his wallet. ‘Grab one for us while you’re there,’ he said. ‘And don’t forget the cake,’ he added, as Millie helped herself to his cash and headed for the door, Ben close behind her.
‘Willow might be quite cool,’ Ben pondered, disappearing into the corridor.
‘Uh, uh.’ Millie’s decisive tones floated back. ‘We want her to have a strong name. Something short and punchy, like … Aria, maybe?’
‘Shall we think of a name before they christen her?’ Jake suggested amusedly.
‘I’ve already thought of one.’ Emily glanced tentatively up at him.
Jake tore his gaze away from the baby to look at her curiously. ‘Which is?’
‘Rosie,’ she said quietly.
Jake sucked in a breath.
‘I know you might have mixed feelings about naming her after your mother, Jake, but …’ She reached to press a hand softly to his cheek. ‘I’d like to acknowledge her in some small way. Without her, I would never have had you … or this latest little miracle.’
If you were gripped by Trust Me and want another page-turning thriller, check out The Affair by Sheryl Browne now.
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The Affair
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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!
Buy it now!
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Books by Sheryl Browne
Trust Me
The New Girlfriend
The Perfect Sister
The Marriage Trap
The Second Wife
The Affair
The Babysitter
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The New Girlfriend (Available in the UK and the US)
The Perfect Sister (Available in the UK and the US)
The Marriage Trap (Available in the UK and the US)
The Second Wife (Available in the UK and the US)
The Affair (Available in the UK and the US)
The Babysitter (Available in the UK and the US)
A Letter from Sheryl
Thank you so much for choosing to read Trust Me I really hope you enjoyed it. If you did enjoy it, and would like to keep up to date with my new releases, sign up at the link below:
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Someone tagged me in a tweet and asked me to sum up the story in three words. I chose ‘twins’, ‘jealousy’ and ‘obsession’. I think the word ‘guilt’ should have been in there though. Guilt can come in many forms. It can eat away at us over something as small as not answering the phone, possess us when we might be feeling jaded or angry and snap at someone. It can consume us when a choice we made in the past fundamentally affected our lives, or the life of someone else, forever. This book therefore looks at the need to stop saying ‘If only I’d made this choice differently …’ We can’t undo the past but in order to move forwards we need to forgive ourselves, perhaps reshaping the expectations we have of ourselves, and see all the good that we do, the good that we are, and the goodness we have in our lives.
For my main character, Emily, it’s about letting go of the guilt she carries – some of which was never her burden to carry – rather than being weighed down by it. Exorcising ghosts, if you like, and being there fully for herself and her family. The past is the past. She can’t change it, but she can grasp each new day as it comes and be active in shaping her future. Is she strong enough to forgive those she loves for the decisions they made, though? I hope so.
As I pen this last little section of the book, I would 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.
Stay safe everyone and happy reading.
Sheryl x
www.sherylbrowne.com
The Babysitter
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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…
Mark is in a race against time to protect his family. But what will he find as he goes back to his family home?
If you loved reading The Girl on the Train, Behind Closed Doors and The Sister, you’ll love the suspense of The Babysitter. This unputdownable read will have you turning the pages until way after dark.
The Second Wife
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She made her bed. You’ll lie in it.
Rebecca and Nicole swore to be best friends forever. But three years after they last met up, Rebecca receives a phone call from Nicole’s devoted husband, Richard. Nicole is dead, a tragic suicide. Drowned in a river close to her family home, Richard was the one who pulled her body from the water. Now he can’t even speak about what happened.
While Rebecca reels from the news, she reads her friend’s last letters to her and begins to wonder if she knew Nicole at all. What secrets was she keeping from all the people who knew and loved her?
As Rebecca gets closer and closer to Richard, things go too far and she begins to slip into Nicole’s old life – staying in her home, sleeping in her bed… But if she’s going to become the wife Nicole never was, can she keep herself safe?
The book everyone’s talking about! If you loved The Girl on the Train, The Wife Between Us and The Girl Before, you’ll be totally gripped and unable to put down this twisty page-turning psychological thriller.
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The Marriage Trap
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My husband has been keeping secrets for a long time. He thinks I don’t know what he does outside of this house. But I know everything…
Karla watches silently as Jason hurriedly packs his belongings into a suitcase. She knows that her stillness is unnerving him as she watches his every move from the doorway of their bedroom.
Clothes are screwed up and packed into the case, along with a watch she bought him for his last birthday and his precious laptop. He takes everything from his bedside table. Everything except the framed wedding photo, which now stands alone. Karla strains to see the smiling faces in the photo. If only she knew then what she knows now.
‘I’ve fallen in love with someone else,’ he’d said to her, just moments earlier. The brutality of those words hit Karla hard and she struggled to breathe as she took in each word in turn.
You may think you know what Karla will do next. But you’ll be wrong. Because Karla isn't who you think she is. Only she knows what's about to happen. And you will never see it coming.
An absolutely gripping psychological thriller for readers who loved The Girl on the Train, Gone Girl and The Other Woman. With twists you’ll never see coming, you will not be able to put this one down!
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The Perfect Sister
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Claire always wished for a sister. But should you be careful what you wish for?
Claire has spent her whole marriage trying to be the perfect wife and mother – supporting her husband as he goes for promotions and always making sure she’s there to tuck her daughter into bed each night. But little does she know that almost everyone around her has been keeping secrets that could ruin the life she’s worked so hard to create.
Growing up with warring parents and an often absent father, Claire has always wanted to give her daughter Ella the dream childhood she wishes she’d had. So, when she discovers her husband Luke has been having an affair, Claire is left wondering how she can possibly keep her daughter’s world from crumbling.
Then Claire receives a text message from someone called Sophie that simply reads – ‘You don’t know me, but I’m your sister’. At first, she’s shocked. And Sophie’s appearance raises questions Claire would like to put to her elderly father before it’s too late. But as she gets to know Sophie – who is so like her in so many ways – she can’t help but be delighted to finally have the sibling
she always dreamed of.
As the two women become inseparable, Claire leans on her new sister more and more, ultimately asking her to move into the family home and trusting her with Ella. But when the unthinkable happens and Claire fears for her daughter’s life, she starts to wonder whether her new sister is exactly who she says she is.
One thing Claire knows is that telling the perfect lie seems to run in the family.
Trust Me: An absolutely gripping and unputdownable psychological thriller Page 29
