Page 1 of The Girlfriend

I LOVE MY SON. THAT WAS ALL THAT COUNTED.

IT DIDN’T MATTER THAT she was about to do something heinous.

An opportunity had been granted to her, a beacon of light through the devastating last few months, and Laura knew she had to take that opportunity.

She’d agonized over it for hours; but now that the decision was final, she felt a wave of terror at what she had to say.

The words that were going to break her into pieces.

This was the first time. She briefly considered rehearsing it, but the words—the word—wouldn’t form properly in her head.

Her instinct was to bat it away violently.

Crossing to the sink in the en suite bathroom, just off the private room at the hospital, she looked at herself in the mirror hanging above.

A brief check that her soul was still intact through her worn blue eyes reassured her further.

No flashing green irises, no demon-like pinhole pupils.

She looked more tired though, and she was shocked to see how much she’d aged.

There were more lines around her eyes and mouth.

There was also a sadness, a haunting despair that she had desperately tried to keep at bay with this new expensive hospital, the best doctors she could find, and brittle hope.

For a moment, she forgot what she was about to do and thought only about what was soon to happen.

The heartbreak was a physical force that made her double over, clutching the sink.

After a few seconds, she stood. Nothing had changed.

Cherry was back today. Laura had checked and the flights from Mexico usually arrived at Heathrow early in the morning. She looked at her watch. Maybe she’d be back in her flat in Tooting by now.

A lump formed in her throat as she held her phone, but she swallowed hard. She had to get this right. Any mother would do the same, she reminded herself again and again, a mantra to get her through it.

She dialed the number carefully. She went cold, then clammy, in alternative waves, buffeted around by her agony. Her life was soon to end. The life that had meaning. Holding the phone with two hands, trying to stop their shaking, she waited for the rings in her ear to be terminated.