The Stranger in My Bed: An utterly gripping psychological thriller

by Karen King

  ‘Freya.’ Daisy stood in the doorway, her eyes beseeching. She’s guessed that I know, Freya thought, shooting her a cold look back.

  ‘Auntie Freya!’ The twins both scrambled to their feet and bounded over to her. Freya hugged them and wondered if she should do this, shatter their happy family life.

  It’s not me who’s ruined this family, it’s Daisy and Phil, she reminded herself.

  Mark’s eyes flitted to Freya’s face then to the twins. ‘You two go upstairs and play please, we have some grown-up talking to do.’

  ‘Aw…’ Molly started to protest but Mark took their hands and led them out of the room.

  Daisy looked imploringly at Freya. ‘Freya, can we just talk—’

  ‘Phil got arrested yesterday,’ Freya informed her. She pulled back her hair to show her bruised neck. ‘He attacked me and probably would have killed me if his son hadn’t arrived and pulled him off me.’

  ‘Oh God! Are you okay?’ Daisy asked, her eyes glued to Freya’s bruised neck. Then they widened as she released what else Freya had said. ‘His son!’ she repeated incredulously. ‘I didn’t know Phil had a son!’

  ‘I knew there was a child from his first marriage but Phil told me he’d found out Marianne, his ex, had an affair and that Danny wasn’t his. It was another lie. The truth is that he attacked Marianne too and she had to go into hiding. Phil has a track record of being violent. So you see,’ she retorted, glaring at Daisy, ‘all those things he told you about me hitting him were lies.’

  ‘What?’ Mark had come back into the room now. He shot a glance at Daisy. ‘Phil told you that about Freya?’

  The colour drained from Daisy’s face and she held on to the back of the sofa for support.

  ‘Oh, yes, they shared a lot of pillow talk, didn’t you? And expensive restaurant meals too. Was the holiday for you too? Did Phil cause an argument with me just so he could go off in a huff, and go away with you?’

  Daisy looked like she was going to faint. She sat down in the chair, her arms shaking. ‘I don’t know what you mean…’

  ‘I do.’ Mark was standing behind her now. ‘I knew you two were having an affair. It’s been going on for months.’

  Freya swivelled around to face him. ‘So you did know about it?’

  He nodded. ‘I’m not a fool. I’ve noticed the difference in Daisy, the sexy underwear, the afternoons out “with friends”. I picked up her phone one night and saw a message from Phil. Only it seemed more like a message from a lover.’

  ‘I’m so sorry.’ Tears spilt out of Daisy’s eyes. She looked distraught. She turned her head to Freya. ‘I’m so sorry I hurt both of you. I wish I could undo it all. I got taken in by Phil – he targeted me, flattered me.’

  ‘Oh, don’t worry, I know how Phil works, but that doesn’t excuse you. What I want to know is…’ Freya met Mark’s gaze full on. ‘Was it you who tampered with the brakes on Phil’s car? Did you cause the accident?’

  ‘Of course it wasn’t!’ Daisy said indignantly. ‘What kind of person do you think he is?’

  ‘A husband who had got cheated on. People do a lot of things for revenge,’ Freya said, watching Mark carefully. He had gone pale and hadn’t yet denied it.

  ‘Danny – Phil’s son – said he saw you by Phil’s car earlier that evening,’ she told him.

  Mark swallowed then licked his lips but still didn’t reply.

  ‘Mark?’ Daisy stared at him in horror. ‘Please tell me that you didn’t.’

  Mark sank down into the chair and put his head into his hands. ‘I wasn’t trying to kill him, just put him out of action for a bit,’ he mumbled.

  ‘Well, you certainly did that,’ replied Freya.

  Daisy looked appalled. ‘I don’t believe you! You wouldn’t do something like that. You wouldn’t. You’re not like that!’ she shouted.

  Mark raised his head, a defiant look on his face. ‘No, I wouldn’t have thought it was something I would do either. But then I wouldn’t have thought you’d cheat on me. And when your wife is having an affair with another man, when you think she’s going to run away with him and take your kids with her, then you do desperate things.’

  ‘You were going to run away with Phil?’ Freya repeated in disbelief. ‘How could you do that to me? And to Mark?’ Then a thought occurred to her. ‘That’s why you came to the hospital! Why you kept me company all the time Phil was in a coma. It wasn’t to comfort and support me. It was because you were worried about him. Because you and him were…’ She couldn’t say the word ‘lovers’; it made it sound romantic instead of seedy. ‘You disgust me.’

  ‘I was supporting you. Phil and I ended things weeks before. I realised I wanted to be with Mark, that I’d made a mistake.’

  ‘Really? And when you realised Phil had amnesia, you wanted to make sure he’d forgotten about your affair? Or did you hope he remembered it? That you could pick up where you had left off?’ Contempt dripped from her voice. She pointed to Daisy’s stomach. ‘Is the baby Phil’s? Is that why you were so upset when you discovered you were pregnant?’

  ‘No, it isn’t!’ Daisy protested. She turned pleading eyes to Mark. ‘I am sure that this baby is yours.’

  ‘Look, I’d already figured there’s a chance it isn’t. But I’ll love it just the same,’ Mark told her. He turned to Freya. ‘You’re not going to tell the police, are you?’ he asked, his face strained, his voice breaking. ‘I didn’t intend to kill him, honestly. I just meant him to get a bit hurt so that they couldn’t run off together. I can’t lose Daisy. I don’t want my family to break up. Please don’t tell the police.’

  Freya couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. He looked a pitiful sight. Yes, what he did was wrong – he could have killed Phil, but he hadn’t. And she could see that he had been tortured, desperate. She felt sorry for him that he loved her sister so much he was willing to forgive her and take on the baby she was having, even if it wasn’t his. She wondered if Phil would fight for contact, though. He had always wanted to have a child with Freya, conveniently forgetting the son he already had. She doubted it; he was too selfish. It wasn’t her problem anyway.

  ‘No, I’m not telling the police,’ she said. She turned to Daisy. ‘But I’ll never forgive you for what you did. I’m going away and never want to see you again.’

  As she turned to walk out, Mark shouted to her: ‘Freya. Thank you, I know I don’t deserve it.’

  She looked back at him. ‘I think you’ve been through enough, Mark, and I don’t want to punish you – or the children – any further. But I pity you for loving someone like her.’

  She walked out. From now on her sister was dead to her.

  ‘I’m sorry, Freya. I really am,’ Daisy shouted after her.

  Freya carried on walking.

  *

  Mum passes me the newspaper and I see his photo on the front page. There’s a big article about how he’s been charged with assault on his wife. The paper is ripping him to shreds, dragging up stuff from his past, how he’s sexually assaulted a couple of his students, and then there’s a big piece about how he beat my mum up years ago and she had to run away and get a restraining order against him. I know it must have been Freya who told them about him – she was getting justice for herself and us. The article says that he’s on remand until the case can be heard, has been suspended from the university, and she’s got a restraining order against him and is filing for divorce. He’s well and truly screwed, and I’m glad. It’s payback.

  ‘Well, I guess he’s finally got what he deserves,’ Mum says.

  That’s what I think too. That’s why I didn’t tell the police about the man I saw tampering with the brakes of the car. I didn’t think Freya would tell them either – she’s nice, too nice for him. I knew the man was his girlfriend’s husband. He was a bit of a dope, though, didn’t really know what he was doing, so I finished it off for him when he left.

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  Books by Karen King

  Psychological Thrillers

  The Stranger in My Bed

  Romantic Comedies

  Single All the Way

  The Year of Starting Over

  Snowy Nights at the Lonely Hearts Hotel

  A Letter from Karen

  I want to say a huge thank you for choosing to read The Stranger in My Bed. If you did enjoy it and want to keep up to date with all my latest releases, just sign up at the following link. Your email address will never be shared and you can unsubscribe at any time.

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  This story is a change of direction for me. If you have read any of my previous books, you will know that I usually write romance novels, but this story has been brewing in my head for over ten years now. Rather than a relationship that finally goes right, this is a story about a relationship that goes dramatically wrong. There are many people who have been in, or are still in, abusive relationships. It’s a common trait of abusers to gaslight their victims, to deny all knowledge of the abuse, to say that their partner has imagined it, that they caused the injury themselves, to even pretend to other people that they are the victim. It’s this behaviour that gave me the idea to write this story. I know that many people stay with abusive partners, or go back to them, because of their memories of the good times, because they want their partner to be the person they know they can be, the one they fell in love with. I wondered what would happen if the abuser really did forget what had happened – would their partner forgive them and try to give the marriage another chance? If the abuser couldn’t remember the abuse within the marriage, could they change? That is the concept this story explores.

  If you’re reading this book and are in an abusive relationship, I want to say to you that the abuse isn’t your fault and that no amount of your love, understanding or squashing of yourself will make your partner change. Please look after yourself, walk out, stay safe.

  I hope you loved The Stranger in My Bed, and if you did, I would be very grateful if you could write a review. I’d love to hear what you think, and it makes such a difference helping new readers to discover one of my books for the first time.

  I love hearing from my readers – you can get in touch on my Facebook page, through Twitter, Goodreads or my website.

  Thanks,

  Karen

  www.karenking.net

  Single All the Way

  Get it here!

  I can see my mother is calling me. I answer the phone, knowing I’ll have to tell her about Oliver and me breaking up. But before I can, she announces, ‘I don’t exactly know how to tell you this… But I’m leaving your dad.’

  Single together for the first time, 34-year-old Meg and her warm-hearted, long-suffering mother Sally are cancelling Christmas, and running away to a tiny cottage on the Cornish coast. For Meg, it is the perfect place to heal, away from all the mistletoe, while for her mother it has a special, and secret, place in her heart – from a love story that seems a lifetime ago…

  Meg and Sally find they’re getting to know themselves, and each other, better than ever before. But as they are unable to resist getting involved in the village Christmas celebrations, they encounter two handsome local strangers.

  Sometimes, it’s being away from home that helps you realise where your heart is. What neither woman knows is that, by the time the new year rolls around, one woman will have fallen in love with her husband all over again, and one marriage will be over for good…

  An escapist, romantic and heart-warming novel for fans of One Day in December and No One Cancels Christmas.

  Single All the Way is available here!

  The Year of Starting Over

  Get it here!

  What if – to find yourself – you had to run away?

  Last year was meant to be when Holly got her happy-ever-after. But stuck in a job that’s going nowhere, and a relationship that feels more like it’s going backwards… this year Holly has decided it’s time to change her life. She just has to:

  End the relationship with the commitment-phobic boyfriend

  Go on a proper adventure

  Learn to be herself again

  Definitely, categorically not fall in love.

  Cramming her belongings into her little yellow Mini, Holly drives on to a ferry bound to Spain, to stay at a remote farmhouse near a beautiful village in the Andalusian hills.

  But the day she arrives she nearly crashes her car into a gorgeous guy on a motorbike. He’s called Matias and their paths keep crossing, much to Holly’s irritation. Because as she learns to speak Spanish from the locals, finally starts laying out plans for her own design business, and sips sangria in the sunlit village square, Holly is beginning to remember who she is and what she wants.

  So she won’t allow herself be distracted by Matias. Because this year – for Holly – there are more important things in life than love. And she won’t let yet another bad relationship ruin everything… will she?

  A moving and uplifting romantic comedy about living each moment and learning to trust yourself again, for fans of Jenny Hale, Debbie Macomber, and Sophie Kinsella.

  The Year of Starting Over is available here!

  Snowy Nights at the Lonely Hearts Hotel

  Get it here!

  Snowy rooftops, mulled wine, and a hot single dad. Not the Christmas Saffy wished for… but maybe the one she needs?

  Twenty-nine year old Saffron Baxter knew her holiday plans didn’t stand a chance the moment her sister called to say she was stuck abroad with no hope of being home before Christmas. Saffy would just have to abandon thoughts of wild festive parties in the city and head down to remote Cornwall.

  Because every year her sister hosts a huge Christmas meal for all the single parents in her village. And Saffy knows it’d break her heart to let them down.

  Arriving as snow starts to fall over the thatched cottages of the little harbour town of Port Breok, she meets Logan – the tall, fair-haired, blue-eyed, devoted single dad who lives next door, with his adorable daughter Chloe. At first she thinks he might help her make Christmas Day extra-memorable, but he just seems convinced she’ll never manage – that she’s just a party girl who doesn’t care about Christmas, or anyone’s feelings.

  Maybe he’s right. After all – she doesn’t want to settle down, she’s only there for a few days… But she’s still determined to do her sister proud with gorgeous decorations, the most beautiful real tree – complete with extra twinkly lights, and delicious mince pies. To make it a Christmas everyone will remember, especially little Chloe. Even if, when the mistletoe comes down, she knows she’ll probably never see Logan again…

  The perfect festive romance novel, ideal for fans of Nora Roberts, Jenny Hale and Debbie Macomber.

  Snowy Nights at the Lonely Hearts Hotel is available here!

  Acknowledgements

  I always find this part of the book difficult; there are so many people involved in writing and publishing a book that it’s easy to forget someone. I will try my best not to, but please forgive me if I do.

  The first person I want to thank is my wonderful editor, Isobel Akenhead, for believing in this story and encouraging me to write it, for her invaluable advice, expertise and guidance. You have been a shining star lighting up my way. For all the Bookouture editorial team, you are truly marvellous. And special thanks to the dynamic promotion and marketing team of Kim Nash, Noelle Holten and Sarah Hardy, who go above and beyond in their support of all us authors. We love you ladies. The authors in the Bookouture Lounge, who are always ready with a kind word, a virtual hug and a word of advice. In p
articular Rona Halsall, whose books I really admire, and who has been my sounding board while writing this book. Thank you.

  As always, huge thanks to Dave, the love of my life, who keeps me sane, fed and watered while I am in my writing world, and to my wonderful family and friends, who all support me so much. I love you all.

  To the incredible bloggers who read and review my books, host me on their blogs, cheer me on, retweet and share my posts. The authors and online writing community who are always there to answer questions and encourage. Thank you, every one of you.

  Finally, massive thanks to you, my readers, for buying, reading and reviewing my books. Your support means so much. I especially appreciate you for believing in me enough to buy this book, a new genre for me. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.