Unspoken: A story of secrets, love and revenge T. Belshaw (good books to read for beginners txt) 📖

into the fog. As she slipped into sleep, she found herself, once again, in the kitchen of the farmhouse. Miriam was there, as was Amy, and for some reason, Frank. Martha was, as usual, the centre of attention. Alice tried to look into the Moses basket to see what they were all staring at, but she couldn’t find the right angle to see beneath the hood. The vision changed and suddenly she was looking down on herself in her armchair. The clock wall had vanished, and she could see down the lane, past the last farm and beyond. She began to float upwards until she was high above the farm. She looked across what used to be a hundred acres of farmland, but was now a large housing estate. In the distance, a train hurtled past the town’s long-closed station. Children played in the fenced-off confines of the huge, twenty-year-old Academy school. Vans and lorries, drove in and out of the business park that had once been the top acres. So much had changed since she had been forced to take over the running of the farm, all those years ago. Alice saw it all. She saw Amy’s old house, now sporting a new extension and greenhouse. She saw the cobbled farmyard and the piles of collapsed structures that were once pig pens. The cowshed was gone, now just a concrete slab that still hid Frank’s indigestible remains.

‘Alice, Alice…’

Alice felt a pull as though someone had hold of a kite string, and in an instant, she returned to her body. She sat bolt upright in her chair and slowly opened her eyes as Gwen tugged at her sleeve.

‘My goodness, you gave me a fright then,’ she said nervously. ‘I couldn’t wake you.’

Alice blinked a few times to allow her eyes to adjust to the light.

‘I was just looking around, Gwen, so much has changed.’

Chapter 88

Jess

Jess drove home, still trying to take in what had just happened.

Calvin was a cheating, lying, pathetic excuse for a man, she knew that much. She wanted him out. Nana had been right about him from the start. Why did she always fall for the wrong sort of man? Why couldn’t she be attracted to someone reliable, like Ewan?

She pulled into her parking space next to Calvin’s BMW, turned her key in the Yale, took a deep breath and walked up the stairs to the lounge. Calvin was in the kitchen, making coffee. Jess dropped her bag on the floor and turned to confront him. She wanted to get the first word in but he beat her to it.

‘So, you’re back, you two-timing bitch,’ he spat.

‘Piss off, Calvin, don’t try to lay off the blame. It won’t work this time. I’m not the guilty one here. You’re the one who’s been having it off on the quiet, not me.’

Calvin left the coffee and walked purposefully into the lounge. He stopped two feet short of where Jess was standing and leaned forward until his face was so close, she could feel his hot breath on her skin. She stood her ground, which seemed to unsettle him for a moment.

‘You’ve been shagging that bloody charity worker behind my back.’

‘Bullshit, Calvin. Let’s talk about… What’s her name…? Tania. She had a few choice words to say about you.’

‘She’s mad, there was nothi—’

‘Don’t take me for a fool, Calvin, you’ve done that once too often. I want you out, and I want you out today.’ Jess stood firm, refusing to be intimidated.

‘You want…You want. It’s always you, isn’t it, Jess?’

She laughed. ‘Oh, my God! You actually believe that, don’t you, Calvin? The man who is never in the wrong, the little mummy’s boy who never grew up. Well, I’ve had enough of your pathetic accusations. You’re a bloody narcissist, Calvin, Nana was right about you from the start.’

Calvin slapped her across the face. ‘Nana, fucking, Nana. It’s all I ever hear. Well, I hope she drops dead… I hope she drops dead today and goes straight to Hell, the interfering old bitch.’

Jess took a moment to clear her head, the blow had come as a shock. She knew he could be verbally abusive, but she didn’t think he’d resort to violence. She shook her head to help clear her thoughts and glared into his scowling face.

‘Do that again and you’ll bloody well regret it, you nasty little shit.’

He did it again, this time knocking her to the floor. Jess took a moment to get her breath back, then like some punch-drunk boxer, she tried to get to her feet. Calvin kicked her in the stomach and she went down again.

‘Stay there, Jess. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll stay there.’

Jess got to her hands and knees, again. ‘You lousy, disgusting—’

He kicked her on the temple. This time she went down and stayed down. Calvin stood over her for a moment, then walked slowly to the bedroom. ‘I didn’t sleep too well, last night. I’m going for a lie down.’

Jess lay curled up on the floor, sobbing tears of pain and frustration. She thought back to Nana’s story, how Frank had beaten her, raped her, and tried to do the same to her best friend. She had been shocked by the revelation when she first read it, and she had tried not to think about it since. The taking of a human life was the worst thing anyone could do. But now, she asked herself what would have happened to her if she had fought back, how far would Calvin had gone? His mood could switch from dead-calm to tempest at the flick of a switch. When he walked away, leaving her on the floor, bleeding and in agony, he had spoken as if they had just had lunch and he wanted to sleep it off. She couldn’t risk it happening again. Next time it might be far worse. As she got to her knees, her temper rose. She wasn’t going to just take this beating as