E-Book, Englisch, 384 Seiten
North Happily Never After
Main
ISBN: 978-1-80546-056-5
Verlag: Corvus
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark
A BRAND NEW totally addictive psychological thriller with a shocking final twist, perfect for Summer 2026!
E-Book, Englisch, 384 Seiten
ISBN: 978-1-80546-056-5
Verlag: Corvus
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark
Rachel North was born in Scarborough and studied English Literature at Oxford University. She has worked as a cleaner, a receptionist, a kitchen designer, a market researcher, a company director, a celebrity shopper and a victim support volunteer. She has an MA in Creative Writing. Under the name Caroline Bond, she is the author of six novels, including two Radio 2 Book Club picks, The Second Child, and, her most recently published book, The Day We Left. She lives in Leeds with her husband and one of her three children... the other two having grown up and escaped.
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Chapter 1
ALEX
Alex woke with the sun on his face. He kept his eyes closed and let the weight of his limbs anchor him to the bed. He watched the colours and shapes dance on the inside of his eyelids. It was blissfully quiet. The sense of inoculation from normal life was profound. He luxuriated in it. Maddie lay beside him, breathing softly, utterly relaxed.
. Alex smiled. Bobby would be proud of him – poetry in his head and his heart, two days before his wedding. His best friend’s work was done – Alex was no longer a philistine. Okay, one verse, of a short poem, learnt as an early wedding present, did not Renaissance Man make, but it was proof, surely, that he was well and truly in love.
The decision to stay at the finca rather than at his parents’ place further up the mountain had been a good one. He and Maddie badly needed some time alone together after the stress of the past few months. Being tucked away in one of the basic rooms in the annex had turned out to be a blessing in disguise – the much nicer rooms in the main building were being readied for their guests. Their simple box, with its low ceiling and small en suite bathroom, had afforded them the one thing they’d needed most – privacy. Alex glanced at his watch on the nightstand. Their guests would be arriving at lunchtime; they had only a few hours of freedom left. The prospect of sharing the finca with his closest friends provoked mixed emotions in Alex. It would be lovely to see everyone, and to get their wedding properly underway, but he was also aware that, along with their best wishes and their nicest outfits, the guests would be bringing with them their opinions about his and Maddie’s upcoming union.
He and Maddie had been together sixteen months, which, depending on how you looked at it, was either a whirlwind romance or plenty of time to find out if they were ‘meant to be’. People had been surprisingly forthright in their views on his marriage, and on his choice of bride. At work the guys had lectured him on the attributes that made a woman ‘a keeper’ and the red flags that he should ‘run a mile from’. He’d said little in response. Where Maddie rated on their ‘stupid scale’ was none of their damn business. His parents had been a little more circumspect, although not much. Predictably, they’d been very interested in Maddie’s background – more specifically, who ‘her people’ were. Whatever the hell that meant! Their first meeting had been like some sort of ghastly, extended audition. Alex didn’t know how they wanted his bride to sound, act or be – they themselves having travelled quite a long way from their working-class, South London roots to a mountain in Mallorca. Maddie, to her credit, had coped admirably, but it had hardly been a warm welcome to the family. His sister’s passive-aggressive silences hadn’t helped either. Colette normally didn’t give a stuff about what was happening in his life or who he was seeing, so he hadn’t understood her reaction. As far as Alex could tell, him getting married would make zero difference to her. Staying close to the family was her thing, not his. If she wanted to be their father’s right-hand man, that was fine with Alex – it meant he didn’t have to be.
His friends’ reaction had, thankfully, been more positive. Once Bobby had got over the shock of their engagement, he’d been happy for Alex. It had been touching to see how much time and effort he’d invested in getting to know Maddie once they’d made it official. It had mattered. Alex had wanted, no, he needed the two of them to get on. He couldn’t imagine a life where his wife and his best friend disliked each other. These people were his future. Tom and Charlie had also been pleased for him but in a much more blokey way. They’d taken him out for many, many beers to celebrate. When well-pissed, both of them had, individually, expressed a touch of jealousy that he was ‘sorted’. Tom chose the urinal to make his lonely-heart admission; Charlie the queue in the kebab shop. Once sober, their mutual desire for a soulmate had never been mentioned again. And Priya, lovely Priya, she had, as always, been really sweet about his news. As a diehard romantic, the thought of love triumphing across the social divide obviously appealed to her, although she was far too polite to say anything so crass to his face. Priya was, come to think of it, one of the few people he knew who could have an opinion but not feel compelled to share it. As for Ruby, his second-longest-serving friend and confidante, well, her response had been – classic Ruby. When he rang to tell her that he’d proposed to Maddie, the line had gone dead for a second or two, then she’d said, and he remembered her exact words, ‘So, you are bourgeois after all, darling. It’s a shame. I thought we’d have at least another few years before you threw yourself off the cliff with the rest of the lemmings.’ Then she’d laughed, her signature full-throttle laugh, that made unforgivable things forgivable, congratulated him and asked when, and where, the ‘evil deed’ was happening.
Alex rolled onto his side in order to get a better view of his wife-to-be. It was a cheesy phrase, but he’d found himself using it a lot over the past few months. Maddie was still fast asleep, her back to him, the sheet pushed down around her waist. It was already very warm in the room. Although she’d been careful, she had caught the sun on her back. She’d not wanted to get any strap marks – that had to be a clue to the design of the dress. Maddie’s paranoia wasn’t simple vanity. He knew she was worried that the scars on her spine would be more noticeable if she tanned. They were visible, not that he would ever say that to her. The original wounds from her fall had been so deep that some scarring had been inevitable, despite the meticulous application of every type of cream and ointment available. The memory of how badly injured she’d been, how uncertain her recovery, how close they had come to postponing the wedding, made Alex want to reach out, hold her and keep her safe.
No one else’s opinion mattered. Maddie was the woman Alex wanted to marry, have children and grow old with. He’d never been as certain of anything in his life.
Their relationship had begun, predictably enough, with a drink after work. Alex remembered worrying about where to suggest they meet. Maddie already had him marked down as a flash bastard and he hadn’t wanted to confirm that impression by choosing somewhere too ostentatious. Odd as it sounded, the fact that Maddie wasn’t easily impressed was partly why he’d been so keen – he’d taken her flirty mockery as a sign that she was interested in who he was beneath his Armani suit and his six-figure salary. Also, the weird circumstances of their introduction had set them off on a different trajectory to any of his previous liaisons. Getting mugged outside of her place of work and needing her first-aid skills might not shout ‘ideal boyfriend material’, but at least it had made him memorable. His challenge was to turn that flash of intrigue into something more.
In the end he plumped for one of the traditional old boozers on Fleet Street. It was Friday evening, so it was busy, but having pushed their way through to the back bar, they miraculously managed to nab a table. As the City talk swilled around them, they chatted. Initially it was friendly banter, a continuation of their exchange in the coffee shop as he’d sat bleeding on the floor, but by the second drink they started to relax and began to talk properly, taking it in turns to reveal glimpses of their real selves. So absorbed were they in their voyage of mutual discovery that they didn’t notice the crowd around them start to thin. It was only when Alex went to buy another round that he registered the pub was virtually empty. The barman declined to serve him, pointing out that they were shutting early due to the adverse weather conditions. This came as news to both Alex and Maddie, but as they stepped outside, they saw the reason for the mass exodus.
Winter had arrived, and not the usual cold, grey, nonentity January weather that usually prevailed in central London – this was winter wonderland stuff. For the first time in either of their adult experience, snow was falling thick and fast on the city. In the glow of the street lights the flakes looked like a child’s drawing of snow – lacy, intricate, beautiful. They were both delighted.
He doesn’t remember which of them suggested going for a walk, but he can clearly recall her slipping her arm through his as they headed for St Bride’s. Walking along the largely deserted streets was magical. By the time they reached Middle Temple Garden the snow was a good few centimetres thick – unheard of in the centrally heated, glare-lit Square Mile. It transformed everything – even the bins looked pretty iced in white. The whole city was muted, the normally incessant traffic noise muffled, the presence of humanity dialled down. It was perhaps a bit of a stretch of the imagination, but it had felt like they were the last two people on earth. When the cold finally got the better of them, they made their way to the Tube station, and that’s where fate intervened. The entrance at Holborn was dark and shuttered. The handwritten sign inside the grille explained that services had been suspended ‘due to the...
