Read The Accidental Wife Online
Authors: Rowan Coleman
The Accidental Wife
Contents
Praise for Rowan Coleman:
‘Painfully real and utterly heartbreaking, every page will leave you an emotional wreck but, ultimately, this is a wonderfully uplifting novel about mothers and daughters’ Lisa Jewell
‘I can’t tell you how much I loved this book. It did make me cry but it also made me laugh. Like
Me Before You
by Jojo Moyes, I couldn’t put it down. A tender testament to maternal love’ Katie Fforde
‘Written with great tenderness,
The Memory Book
manages to be heartbreakingly sad yet uplifting too. You’ll hold your loved ones that little bit closer after reading this novel. I absolutely loved it!’ Lucy Diamond
‘
The Memory Book
is warm, sad, and life-affirming, with an unforgettable heroine who will make you laugh and cry. It’s a tender book about treasuring the past and living fully in the present; you’ll finish it and immediately go give your loved ones a hug’ Julie Cohen
‘Warm, funny and totally heartbreaking,
The Memory Book
is a wonderful read’ Polly Williams
‘. . . just stunning . . . incredibly beautiful . . . the story took me on a journey that was at turns, devastating and then so uplifting. It made my heart soar at the strength of the human spirit and how capable human beings are of true, selfless love. An unforgettable and courageous story . . . This story has the ingredients to capture the world’ Katy Regan
‘A heart-breaking story that will stay with you long after you’ve finished the book’ Carole Matthews
‘. . . terrific . . . incredibly moving but also witty and warm’ Kate Harrison
‘. . . breath-takingly gut-wrenchingly heart-breakingly wonderful. Exquisitely crafted and with huge emotional depth . . . extraordinary’ Veronica Henry
‘An absolutely beautiful, stunningly written story - you HAVE to read
The Memory Book
by Rowan Coleman!’ Miranda Dickinson
‘Heartbreakingly good stuff – just be sure to stock up on tissues’
Fabulous Magazine, The Sun on Sunday
‘This is a heart-rending story, but it’s also completely absorbing, uplifting, tender, sad and wise’
Sunday Mirror
About the Book
Alison James
thinks she might be living the wrong life. She loves her husband Marc and their three children but somehow, in the process of building a perfect life for her family, she seems to have lost herself. And sometimes she worries that she’s being punished for how it all started – for the day she ran away with her best friend’s boyfriend.
Catherine Ashley
knows she’s living the wrong life. She adores her two daughters, but she’d always thought that at thirty-one she’d be more than a near-divorcee with a dead-end job. In those dark middle-of-the-night moments that come all too often these days, her mind still flicks back to the love of her life: Marc James. And she still wonders whether Alison stole her life as well as her boyfriend.
Alison and Catherine have been living separate lives, a hundred miles apart, for fifteen years – since Alison and Marc ran away. But now Alison’s moving back to Farmington, the town in which they both grew up. And they’re about to find out just how different both their lives could still be …
About the Author
Rowan Coleman lives with her husband, and five children in a very full house in Hertfordshire. She juggles writing novels with raising her family which includes a very lively set of toddler twins whose main hobby is going in the opposite directions. When she gets the chance, Rowan enjoys sleeping, sitting and loves watching films; she is also attempting to learn how to bake.
Rowan has written eleven novels, some of which include
The Memory Book, The Accidental Mother
and the award-winning
Dearest Rose
, which led her to become an active supporter of Refuge, the charity against domestic abuse. She is donating 100% of royalties from the ebook publication of her novella
Woman Walks Into a Bar
to the charity.
Rowan does not have time for ironing.
www.rowancoleman.co.uk
@rowancoleman
Also by Rowan Coleman:
The Memory Book
Dearest Rose
Lessons in Laughing Out Loud
The Happy Home for Broken Hearts
The Baby Group
Woman Walks Into A Bar
River Deep
After Ever After
Growing Up Twice
The Accidental Mother
The Accidental Wife
The Accidental Family
Writing as Scarlett Bailey:
Just For Christmas
Married by Christmas
Santa Maybe
(digital short)
The Night Before Christmas
For Erol and Lily, my sunshine
Acknowledgements
I don’t think I have ever written a book before that focuses so strongly on female relationships and how crucial they are in a woman’s life, and when I began to write these acknowledgements I realised why. So many women are so important to me and to my writing.
Thank you so much to Kate Elton for her unswerving faith in me that means so very much, and to both Kate and Georgina Hawtrey-Woore for the always wonderfully creative and intelligent editorial support they provide. Working with them is always a privilege and a pleasure.
Thank you so much to my agent and good friend Lizzy Kremer, who works tirelessly on my behalf and to whom I have so much to be grateful to.
Also, thank you to my oldest best friends Jenny Matthews, Rosie Wooley, Sarah Darby, Clare Winter and Cathy Carter. You girls have been a part of my life for so long, I never laugh so much as when I am with you and the continued support you give me is key to everything I write.
I could not have written this book without the help of my new best friends Margi Harris, Kirsty Seaman and Catherine Ashley who were always there with offers of help, childcare and occasionally wine! Kirsty and Catherine were kind enough to let me use their names in this book and its only fair
to
point out that neither one of them is anything like their namesakes!
Thank you to my mum who, I think above everything else, has taught me how to be a good friend.
And finally, thank you to the token man in these acknowledgements, my husband Erol who is always there for me, always supporting me and whose love keeps me going. And of course all my love to my daughter Lily who is my sunshine and who makes me feel like spring is here, even on the darkest, wettest day.
Chapter One
ALISON JAMES FOUND
that her feet could not move.
‘Goodbye fireplace; goodbye window; goodbye spider’s web; goodbye door knob …’
As Alison listened to five-year-old Amy’s litany of farewells she thought of her husband in the car, his forefinger drumming against the steering wheel impatiently as he waited for her and Amy to come out and join the rest of the family to go to their new home, their new life. The removal lorry had left almost half an hour ago and Alison knew that Marc was horrified at the thought of his widescreen TV languishing on the damp front lawn while the movers waited for someone to let them in. What he didn’t know was that for two of the family, at least, and despite all that had happened here, it was hard to say goodbye.
The car horn sounded, three long bursts that made Amy jump.
‘Come on then, sweetheart,’ Alison said, taking her daughter’s hand. ‘It’s time to go to our new home. It will be very exciting, won’t it? A proper adventure.’
Amy looked up at her mummy. ‘But I haven’t said goodbye stairs; goodbye loo; goodbye airing cupboard; goodbye …’
‘How about you just say one big goodbye to the whole house?’ Alison prompted her, even though she would be
perfectly
happy to wait while Amy bade farewell to every brick and board. She knew exactly how her daughter felt about leaving their London home because she was just as reluctant, particularly considering where they were moving to. Everyone else thought they were starting afresh, beginning a new life and turning a clean page. Only Alison understood that they were travelling back into the past, more specifically, her past.
But the decision had been made and now it was impossible to turn back.
‘Is Farmington nice, Mama?’ Amy asked, closing her fingers tightly around Alison’s.
Alison felt an echoing clench of anxiety in her gut. ‘Yes, darling, it’s lovely. It’s the place where Mummy grew up, remember? There’s lots of room to play and not so much pollution. And the school will be great. You’ll love it. Just think of all the new friends you’ll make.’
Alison looked down at Amy’s small, quiet face; she could only guess at how terrifying this move must seem to the five-year-old.
What her husband didn’t seem to be able to understand was that going home was nearly as terrifying for her.
‘Goodbye house,’ Amy said on a heavy sigh. ‘Be happy with your new family.’
Then finally Alison forced her leaden feet to move and, leading Amy by the hand, she shut the front door on her old life for ever.
‘Get a move on, love.’ Marc leaned out of the car window. ‘I’d like to get us all in before dark!’
Once in the car Alison looked in the rear-view mirror. Fifteen-year-old Dominic was slumped at the very back, his arms crossed, his woollen hat pulled down over his brows so his black hair fanned into his eyes, his beloved electric guitar in its case on the seat next to him. He was plugged into his
iPod
with his eyes closed, shutting the world out, displaying his disapproval at what was happening with a silent if not peaceful protest. Her middle child, eight-year-old Gemma, was staring happily out of the window, her legs drumming in anticipation of a new adventure, a new world to conquer and hundreds of new friends to make, possibly the only one in the whole family who was truly looking towards the future.
Only Amy, who had her palms pressed against the car window, kept looking back. Only Amy was still saying her goodbyes even as they turned the corner and their old street was out of sight for good. Only Amy, who brushed away a tear with the heel of a hand and then plugged her mouth with her thumb and clung on to her toy for dear life, seemed aware of exactly what they had left behind.
Only Amy and Alison, that is.
‘Come on Alison, it’s perfect, admit it?’ Marc had pressed her only six weeks earlier, when he’d told her he thought they should put the house on the market and that he’d found them the perfect place to move to.
Alison had half looked at the details of the new house he had thrust under her nose the minute he’d walked in the door. That was Marc: he was an all-or-nothing kind of man. Things had to be done right away or not at all. He had made a mistake and now he was taking decisive action to fix it – decisive and drastic. The house in the photo was certainly much bigger than their current house, set in some grounds at the end of what looked like a long driveway.
‘There’s no way we can afford a house like this near enough to London for you to be able to commute, and if you think that I’m going to be stuck out in the country while you’re in town all week then –’