by Rona Halsall
The previous evening, they’d stayed up late, talking about the future, but there was still a subject that had been skirted around. Months ago, she’d written to her father about the missing letter from Connor, and he’d eventually admitted that he’d burnt it, worried that Becca would go back to Australia if she read the contents. He’d told her that it was an apology and a proposal. All those years ago, Connor had asked her to marry him, and she’d never known and never been able to reply. Just another example of how Frank had been trying to manipulate her life choices for years.
In all honesty, her heart and her head were having a ferocious battle because life was complicated enough without Connor in the mix. But she’d had to come – because what if she’d never known, what if she’d spent the rest of her life wondering about what could have been? Ending her life with regrets. It was only a year until Mia started school, so if she was going to go away for any length of time, it had to be now. Plus, she had some money from the divorce settlement, and she wasn’t yet committed to permanent work. The timing had been perfect, and without letting herself think too hard about whether it was a good idea, she’d gone ahead and booked the flights.
Now, as she let her eyes drift over the lush rainforest, her mind took her back to a year ago and everything that had brought her to this point in time.
Mia had stayed with Ruth in the beginning, while all the allegations were being investigated and the proper protocols were followed. Becca had found an apartment to rent nearby, which suited her just fine. It had taken a few weeks for everyone to be convinced that Becca didn’t have mental health problems and wasn’t the one poisoning her daughter. But in the end, she was fully exonerated. After a few months off to rest and recuperate, she had taken on some agency work as a home carer. The work was less stressful and fit better round Mia’s needs and was perfect for now.
Dean had kept the house, having bought Becca out, and Kate was living with him now, their relationship out in the open. She was still in a wheelchair, but her coordination was slowly improving, and she was determined to become fully mobile again. Obviously, she hadn’t been able to take up her job in London, but she was helping Dean with his business.
It had taken a few months, but Ruth had persuaded Becca that she should talk to Kate and clear the air. It had been difficult at first, the sense of betrayal dominating Becca’s thoughts – all she could focus on was the fact that Kate had been having an affair with her husband. However, having lost her mum with bad feelings still between them, she couldn’t let the same happen with Kate. Yes, she was bossy, and they didn’t always see eye to eye, but she was her sister, and Becca was trying to be adult and rational about everything. Although Dean felt guilty about the crash, and that might have brought them even closer together, in her heart, Becca thought the two of them actually made a good couple.
Becca’s relationship with Dean had been built on the wrong foundations, shaky from the start, with both of them on the rebound, and she was sure that neither of them would find what they needed with each other. Thankfully, they had managed to keep things civilised and had agreed shared access to Mia. With Dean’s work, though, that meant she only went to stay with him a couple of weekends a month, and Becca was happy to keep things flexible.
Kate had denied any involvement with Frank’s scheme, and Becca believed her. Apparently, she’d told him several times that she couldn’t carry on living with him. She knew she’d behaved badly around him, but she’d found his behaviour so passive-aggressive and manipulative, she couldn’t cope. Every time she’d said she was leaving, though, he’d had a health scare, or some little accident round the house, and she’d ended up staying because he couldn’t be trusted to live on his own, and Becca was too busy with her family and work to help.
Poor Kate. She’d had as difficult a time as Becca in a way, and talking everything through with her, and then Ruth, had allowed Becca to see things from a different perspective. Gradually, they were rebuilding their relationship and although they would never be best friends, they would always be sisters.
Frank had been convicted of child abuse, although there had been a lot of wrangling about the diagnosis of factitious disorder imposed on another and whether he was actually suffering from it or whether it was a convenient label to hide behind to avoid prison. Eventually, after several psychiatric assessments and a failed suicide attempt while on remand, the decision had been made to hold him in a secure hospital unit, rather than prison. He had written to Becca and apologised, explained that he wasn’t himself and was still suffering from grief after losing her mum.
Becca had done a lot of research about the disorder. Her own feeling was that Frank had always been a hypochondriac, an attention-seeker, and his problem was, as one psychiatrist had suggested, a narcissistic personality disorder. He’d had problems adjusting to life on his own and had a sense of entitlement, thinking his daughters should look after him the way his wife always used to. His sense of reality had become blurred, but he’d known what he was doing. He had basically been using Becca’s past against her to engineer a situation where he would, once again, be the centre of attention.
Becca was glad she’d found a support organisation, Fiightback, to help her, and had been shocked to find how prevalent wrong accusations of factitious disorder, or fabricated illnesses, had become. She wasn’t the only one who had suffered false accusations and been separated from loved ones, and talking to others in a similar situation had helped her to come to terms with her ordeal and start to move on.
One thing Becca was sure of was that Frank couldn’t be trusted to be near her daughter now or ever. She had to make sure there was a distance between them. It was sad, but her relationship with her father was never going to be as close as it had once been. In reality, though, nothing about their relationship had been what she’d thought it was. It had been an illusion, and that was another thing she had to come to terms with.
Connor’s hand squeezed hers and brought her back to the breakfast table and the sound of the kookaburras calling in the trees. ‘You were miles away,’ he said.
‘Oh, I was just thinking about everything that’s happened.’
‘Don’t go.’ His eyes met hers. ‘Not yet.’
She sighed. ‘I can’t afford to stay.’ She watched a flock of parakeets arguing in the trees, then, in a flash of rainbow colours, they were gone. It really was a magical place, so vibrant and full of life. ‘I’ve already spent a big chunk of my capital by having time off and coming here.’
‘Ah, about that… Mum’s had an idea.’
He had a big grin on his face. ‘She wondered if you’d like to help out in the guest house for the rest of the holiday season. She couldn’t pay you much, but you could live in and get all your meals. Then we’d have a few more months.’ His eyes sparkled. ‘What do you think?’
Her heart leapt with excitement. Could he be part of their lives for a little while longer? There was no doubt it was tempting, and Mia loved being here. But could she separate Mia from her father?
Dean’s last words to her before she’d left pushed themselves into her thoughts. It was when he’d dropped them at the airport, and she’d been about to head off to departures. He’d grabbed her arm and swung her round to face him. ‘I know I’ve behaved badly,’ he’d said. ‘I can’t tell you how sorry I am. Look, you take all the time you need. I’m happy to chat to Mia on FaceTime. And it’s my busiest time of the year – I probably won’t get much chance to be with Mia over the next few months, given our events schedule.’ He’d registered the surprise on her face. ‘I mean it, Becca. You do what’s right for you.’
She’d mulled it over on the plane, understanding that although Dean loved his daughter, he loved his business almost as much. By giving Becca permission to stay away longer, he was giving himself permission to dedicate less time to parenting and more time to his work.
Now, she understood that it was a situation that suited them both, and from Mia’s perspective, she would g
et to spend more time with Connor, a man who delighted in playing with her and understood how to parent Mia in a way Dean didn’t seem to grasp.
‘Do you know what?’ she said, stroking the back of his hand with her thumb, a grin spreading across her face. ‘I think I might just do that.’
Connor whooped and jumped up from his chair, punching the air like he’d just won a gold medal. He picked her up and swung her round, making her laugh until tears were streaming down her face.
His expression was suddenly serious. ‘The way I feel about you, Becca… Even after all these years, nothing’s changed for me. I’m still in love with you.’
‘And I love you too,’ she said, knowing that it was the truth.
Her heart fluttered, like a newly emerged butterfly, spreading its wings. She was free from all those bad decisions, free from a manipulative parent. Free from an ill-conceived loyalty to a marriage based on the wrong emotions. Now she could turn back the clock and start again. For the first time in years, she was in charge of her own destiny, and being here with Connor felt like the perfect new beginning.
If you were completely gripped by The Ex-Boyfriend, don’t miss Rona’s absolutely unputdownable novel Love You Gone. With a twist you’ll never see coming, it’s a truly perfect read for fans of Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train.
Love You Gone
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‘Hello? Police? My husband and our children… they’re gone.’
When Mel arrives at the holiday cottage in the Lake District, she expects to find the heating on and her husband Luke and the two children waiting for her. Maybe a bottle of wine open…
Instead, there is just a note on the side, saying they’ve gone out for a walk.
But they aren’t back several hours later, and Mel knows something is wrong. Really wrong. When a search doesn’t find them, she has to confess to the police that her marriage isn’t all that it seems.
Even if that risks her own secrets being revealed…
An absolutely incredible, page-turning psychological thriller with a twist you won’t see coming, for fans of Gone Girl, Behind Closed Doors and Ruth Ware.
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A Letter from Rona
I want to say a huge thank you for choosing to read The Ex-Boyfriend. 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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The idea for this story came from a news article covering concerns that there was an increasing number of families who had been wrongly accused of inventing or causing illnesses in their children. Fabricated or induced illness (FII) is a form of abuse where parents exaggerate or cause their child’s medical condition, and the report identified that families and charities were seeing a wave of false allegations. After reading a few case studies, I was appalled at how easily a genuine concern could be misconstrued, leaving one or both parents separated from their families. It’s an unthinkable situation and seemed like the perfect subject matter for a psychological thriller as a way to highlight the issue. There is a support organisation called Fiightback which offers guidance to affected families, and in my story, Becca turns to them for help with the aftermath of the false allegations.
I put my main character through the most horrendous ordeal, which I could relate to so much as a mother myself. Aren’t we all anxious about our children’s health? Haven’t we all overreacted – I know I have! – on at least one occasion? Thankfully, my heroine manages to find a way through, as I wanted to show that even the darkest of times come to an end. That happiness can be found again.
Wrapped around this false allegation is the idea of past love and whether it can be forgotten if the loose ends have not been properly tidied up. I like to think that it’s never too late to search out true love, even if it does mean revisiting the past.
I hope you loved The Ex-Boyfriend, 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 website, Facebook page, through Twitter, Goodreads or Instagram.
Thanks,
Rona
www.ronahalsall.com
Books by Rona Halsall
The Ex-Boyfriend
One Mistake
Her Mother’s Lies
The Honeymoon
Love You Gone
Keep You Safe
AVAILABLE IN AUDIO
One Mistake (Available in the UK and the US)
Her Mother’s Lies (Available in the UK and the US)
One Mistake
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‘I will keep your secret. You just have to do me one little favour…’
Sara made one promise to herself when she was growing up in foster care: that if she was lucky enough to have a family, she’d always do whatever it took to protect them. Looking around her happy home with its warm, bustling kitchen and living room; where her energetic teenage daughters and sweet-natured four-year-old son all eat and live and play together, she knows she’d do anything to keep them safe.
So when Sara’s husband Matt loses his job and every shred of his confidence with it, she knows it’s up to her to bring the family back from the brink. She doesn’t know where she can possibly find the money they need to keep afloat.
Until her boss offers her a deal. He’ll help out. All she has to do him for him is one little favour… First it’s a drink. Then it’s dinner. He insists it’s just friendly. But where will it stop? And is it going to protect Sara’s happy home… or destroy it?
This year’s most gripping psychological thriller – perfect for fans of My Lovely Wife, The Girl on the Train, and Something in the Water.
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Her Mother’s Lies
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‘She hasn’t told you, has she?’ He squeezed his eyes shut. She watched the muscles of his jaw tense, then his eyes blinked open and he took a deep breath… ‘I’m not your father.’
He was there for her first steps, for her first day of school. He helped her with her homework, and took her for ice cream at the weekends. And then, two days before her ninth birthday, Martha’s father walked out. She never knew what went wrong, but she and her mother Fran never saw or heard from him again.
Fifteen years later, frustrated in a life which consists of caring for an increasingly-ill Fran, and heartbroken after the death of a beloved friend, Martha decides she needs some answers, and she knows it’s time to track down the father who left them behind.
Except when she comes face-to-face with him for the first time in fifteen years, he tells her a brutal truth.
He isn’t her father.
Her mother has been telling lies.
And not just about who her real father is…
A page-turning, gripping psychological thriller for fans of Paula Hawkins, Clare Mackintosh, and C. L. Taylor.
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The Honeymoon
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‘I’m your husband, Chloe. We’re a partnership now and we do what’s best for us as a couple. Staying here is going to be the best option.’ He picked up his drink and took a sip. ‘It’s not open for discussion. We’re not going home.’
Chloe had the dream wedding. Dan is her perfect man. They haven’t known each other for long, but as she walked down the aisle and saw him standing by the altar, tears glistening in his eyes, she knew this was forever.
Later, as they relax on a beautiful island, settling in to their new married life together, they congratulate themselves on their lovely wedding day, and Dan jokes
that he’d like them to stay there forever.
But as the honeymoon goes on, he becomes increasingly adamant. They shouldn’t leave. In fact, he won’t let her…
An utterly gripping psychological thriller for fans of Gillian Flynn, Clare Mackintosh, and The Wife Between Us.
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Keep You Safe