The Keeper of Secrets by Amanda Brooke Page B

dream of being in heaven, that’s all it will ever be: a dream. Remember that time you dreamt you were having your birthday party on the moon? You still came back to me, didn’t you?’
    When Charlie looked at her, the sparkle in his eyes wasn’t from tears but a glimmer of hope.
    â€˜Dreams are only make believe,’ she added to close the deal.
    â€˜But sometimes they do come true.’ Charlie wasn’t arguing with his mum’s theories now but adding a new twist. ‘My treasure was real.’
    â€˜The treasure buried under the tree?’
    Charlie nodded. ‘In my dream Nana took me into the garden to show me where it was.’
    â€˜I don’t doubt you dreamt about it, Charlie, but you must have been there when Nana buried it. You were very young at the time. It was a memory you didn’t even know you had.’
    â€˜No, she showed me in the dream.’ There was such conviction in Charlie’s voice that she longed to believe him. The discovery of the letters could be a turning point in her life. What if her mum didn’t want her to waste her life in a sham marriage, the way she had? Elle didn’t believe in spirits but the idea that someone was guiding her was tempting.
    She stayed with Charlie a while longer than was strictly necessary but at least when she left, he didn’t object.
    As she closed the door to his room her reluctance to return to her guests grew until it overwhelmed her. Rather than head downstairs, she slipped into the bathroom first to freshen up.
    The water from the tap was icy cold as she swilled her face, creating thin rivers of mascara that threatened to deepen the dark circles under her eyes. As she wiped them away, she checked her reflection in the mirrored door of the medicine cabinet. She could see why Rick complained of her looking tired and dowdy. She was pitiful. She was a non-person. And her head was throbbing.
    She opened the cabinet and took out a couple of painkillers, swallowing them back with a handful of water. She closed the door and faced her reflection again. She stared at it blankly as goose bumps pricked her skin. For a moment, her mind stalled and she felt a rush of panic as she tried to work out what was wrong. Then she knew. She re-opened the cabinet. There had been three boxes of contraceptive pills on the top shelf, along with one half-used sleeve. They were all gone. She rifled through boxes and bottles on the other shelves and even checked the bin. They weren’t there, but then she hadn’t expected that they would be.
    Her first reaction was overwhelming acceptance. Rick was always going to win and she couldn’t outmanoeuvre him. She couldn’t escape the gilded cage. She thought of her mum and the tiny house she had been trapped in. This house was two or three times the size. Would it be so bad? The anger when it came took her breath away. It was as if she had been slapped across the face, and through the swirling red mist she imagined someone stepping forward. It was the woman she had once been, the one who had believed she could make a life for herself, the one who had a mind of her own.
    Elle flung open the bathroom door. She kept her anger burning with thoughts of the betrayal that had broken her mum’s heart but would make her daughter stronger. She was so intent on confronting Rick that she walked straight into Chris on the landing. He had to grab her arm to stop her from tripping over his feet.
    â€˜Sorry, Elle,’ he said. ‘Hey, are you all right?’
    She wiped away the tears which she hadn’t even realized were falling. ‘Is he having an affair?’
    Chris still had hold of her arm and gave it a gentle squeeze. ‘I think that’s a question you need to ask Rick.’
    â€˜I’ll take that as a yes, then.’
    There was a pained look on Chris’s face as he tried to decide what to say next. ‘You deserve better.’
    â€˜I swear I’m