Page 46 of My Husband’s Wife

Forty-Five

Madison hurries back to the dirt road, wondering why Theo was calling.

She tries to call him back but he doesn’t answer.

As she’s about to reach the gate, something catches her eye.

A green that isn’t the green of the leaves or shrubs.

It’s more like an artificial mint colour, like the one she’d used to paint one of the walls in her salon.

The piece of material dances to the tune of the breeze.

She tugs it but it’s stuck to a thorn. After gently teasing it, it becomes free.

Her phone buzzes and rings. ‘Theo.’

‘Where are you?’

‘I’m just out the front. I’ve been for a walk with Emily.’

‘Someone broke into the cabin last night.’

She runs through the gate and in through the front door. He stands in the kitchen, staring out of the back window at the cabin with Buster at his feet. ‘Have they taken anything?’

He shakes his head. ‘I don’t think so.’

‘How do you know someone broke in?’

‘The toilet window has been pushed out.’

She tries to imagine someone getting through that window. It’s big enough to squeeze through but it’s not huge. ‘I told you someone was watching us last night.’

‘I’m sorry, I should have checked outside.’ He huffs out a breath. ‘I bet they waited until we were asleep.’

‘But they didn’t take anything,’ she adds.

‘I’ll board the window up for now. Maybe it was kids camping out in the woods and messing around.’

‘Seriously. We need to call the police and not touch anything just in case whoever broke in left their DNA.’

He raises his arms and lets them drop. ‘You think they’ll send someone out for nothing more than a broken toilet window?

Besides, I’ve already been in there and touched everything.

They’ll just give me a crime number for the insurance, and there’s no point claiming because the excess will cost more. Nothing has been taken.’

She knows the police won’t do much but they were broken into. Someone had been watching them, and waiting for them to go to bed. ‘It should go on the record. What if they come back?’

‘Look, they got nothing. We’re looking at selling soon and the last thing we need is any prospective buyers knowing we’ve been broken into. It’ll make the cottage harder to sell. I’m going to board it and then we can forget it.’

She doesn’t seem to have a say in the matter. ‘I found this caught in the shrubs.’ She places the material on the worktop. ‘Maybe the intruder was wearing this and they got snagged.’

‘Or maybe it’s nothing more than a bit of material.’

‘I want to call the police,’ she says.

‘There’s no point.’

She feels the battle rising within. Theo hates people coming into their house, and he won’t relish police lurking around for half the day. ‘But I don’t feel safe.’

‘It was kids. They won’t be back.’

‘How do you know?’

His jaw remains locked tight and his cheeks pulse every time he clenches his teeth.

‘If it makes you feel better, I’ll set up a little motion camera in the cabin tonight.

If anyone dares to enter, I’ll be straight out there.

’ His stare moves to Emily and his jaw slackens.

‘What’s that?’ He points to the toy raven.

‘I found it.’

‘Have you been in the shed?’

‘I, err, I went there for a walk and saw that the door was unlocked.’

‘So you just walked in?’ His knuckles are white. He begins to breathe in and out, like his therapist showed him.

‘I didn’t know I wasn’t allowed in there.’

‘I have a camera set up. The animals won’t come if you’re there.’

‘Don’t they come mainly at night?’

‘Please don’t go in there again.’

‘There wasn’t a camera set up.’ She hadn’t disrupted anything and she can’t understand why he is hostile.

He snatches the toy raven from Emily and throws it in the bin.

‘Theo, what was that for?’

Emily begins to cry again.

He doesn’t answer, instead he does what he always does when in one of his moods. He walks out, leaving her frustrated. She knows the raven has hit a nerve but she removes it from the bin regardless, then she hides it at the back of the cupboard.

Theo walks back to the cabin and straight into his office.

She continues to watch him through the kitchen window as he paces back and forth with his phone clasped to his ear and his other arm in the air.

He’s talking to someone and he looks so angry, Madison feels the creeping sensation of fear at the back of her neck.

She’s beginning to wonder if she knows Theo at all.