The Accusation: An addictive psychological thriller with a jaw-dropping twist
Page 24
I open my eyes, put my fingers to my arm and trace the stab wound there.
‘Tell us what happened,’ the man says again.
‘She tried to kill me. Everything happened so quickly.’ I wince and bring my hand to my head, finding a bandage covering an injury I wasn’t even aware of.
The man nods and glances at his partner, who stands from her seat. ‘We’ll try again later. Your husband’s in the corridor. Shall we send him in?’
I nod. A moment after the police leave, Damien enters the room. He sits on the chair at the side of the bed, watching me in silence.
‘Is Amelia okay?’
‘Just about.’
‘I had to leave her,’ I say, desperate for him to understand the choice I was faced with. ‘I knew Charlotte would try to kill me – I had to protect Amelia.’
Damien’s eyes meet mine. ‘You sure? Or were you still protecting yourself?’
I feel a tear slip from my eye and I raise a hand to swipe it away, not wanting to rely on sympathy to make him understand. ‘No,’ I say. ‘I was protecting Amelia. I was protecting Lily. We’re a family. We always will be.’
Damien’s jaw tightens. ‘How will I ever be able to trust you again?’
‘Let me tell you everything. Promise you’ll hear me out this time.’
I wait for the reasons why he can’t or won’t listen, but they never come.
‘What happened in that car last night, Jenna? How did you get here but Charlotte didn’t?’
This time, I don’t need to lie.
‘She tried to pull me back at first. The car was filling with water so quickly – it all just feels like a blur now. She couldn’t get her seat belt undone, but when I managed to do it, she froze. She wouldn’t come up to the surface with me; she just stayed there, like she wanted to end it all.’
He studies my face as I speak, only half believing the words I say, but I see the hesitation in his doubt and I know he doesn’t want to let go, not yet. Despite everything we have been through, Damien and I are meant to be together. Only he knows my secret – and Jacob, who trusted me with his – but I believe now, as I have always believed, that not all secrets are destructive and that some are for the best, designed to protect rather than destroy. We were happy once. We can be happy again; this time with the truth out in the open. I will have to tell Lily and can only hope that the bond we have – the years I have given her – is strong enough for her to understand why I did what I did.
I wait, hopeful and undeserving, then his hand slides onto the bed and his fingers lock with mine.
Want to have your mind blown by another amazing twist? Read The Argument here now!
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The Argument
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It happens to every mother. One day, the daughter whose whole world you once were, becomes someone you barely know. And you don’t know the secrets she’s hiding…
One hot summer night, 15-year-old Olivia comes home late from a party she was strictly forbidden from going to, and she and her mother, Hannah, start arguing. Soon Olivia speaks the words that every parent has heard from their teenage child:
‘I hate you. You’ve ruined my life. And I’m never speaking to you again.’
Olivia has never been an easy child, a sharp contrast to her easy-going, happy-go-lucky little sister. But Hannah thinks Olivia’s outburst is the end of a normal family argument. In fact, it’s only the beginning of a nightmare…
After one day of silence, Hannah thinks Olivia is taking a teenage sulk too far. After two days, she starts to feel anxious that something more serious could be going on. After a week, when her daughter still hasn’t spoken, Hannah knows that Olivia is hiding a bigger darkness – something that could threaten to tear their precious family apart…
The Argument is an unputdownable psychological thriller that asks how far we can push our families before they finally break. Perfect for fans of Gillian Flynn, The Woman in the Window, and The Silent Patient.
The Argument is an unputdownable psychological thriller that asks how far we can push our families before they finally break. Perfect for fans of Gillian Flynn, The Woman in the Window, and The Silent Patient.
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Books by Victoria Jenkins
The Detectives King and Lane series
The Girls in the Water
The First One to Die
Nobody’s Child
A Promise to the Dead
The Divorce
The Argument
The Accusation
AVAILABLE IN AUDIO
The Girls in the Water (Available in the UK and the US)
The First One to Die (Available in the UK and the US)
Nobody’s Child (Available in the UK and the US)
The Divorce (Available in the UK and the US)
The Argument (Available in the UK and the US)
A Letter from Victoria
Dear Reader,
I want to say a huge thank you for choosing to read The Accusation. If you enjoyed it and would like to keep up to date with my latest releases, just sign up to the following link. Your email address will never be shared, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
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Like my two previous thrillers, The Accusation started with a ‘what if’ idea – what if someone took a shortcut home, and that shortcut changed the course of their life? The idea of being falsely accused of a crime is something that has always fascinated me, and there are many famous cases of people having served sentences for crimes of which they were later acquitted. I have often wondered when reading about such cases – or watching dramas or documentaries – how such a person manages to move on with their life afterwards, and to what extent the stigma remains even after their innocence has been proven. In the case of The Accusation, the ‘what if’ ran to a further idea of ‘what if the person was innocent of the accusation made, but was guilty of something else?’
The Accusation is a little different for me, as it’s the first book I have written in first-person. I have enjoyed the experience of being well and truly inside a character’s head – if I was Jenna, how would I react to the accusation? What would I tell my family? Would I confront my accuser? Jenna is not without her flaws, but I hoped to create a protagonist readers would be able to empathise with and root for. As in every book I have written, relationships are at the heart of the story, and Jenna’s love for her family is the motivation for every decision she makes. Despite her ‘crime’, I believe she deserves a happy ending, and I hope this is where I have left her.
I hope you enjoyed The Accusation; if you did, I would be very grateful if you could write a review. I would love to hear what you think, and it really does make a difference helping new readers discover one of my books for the first time.
I love hearing from my readers – you can get in touch on my Facebook page, Twitter, Goodreads or my website.
Thanks,
Victoria Jenkins
The Girls in the Water
Detectives King and Lane Book 1
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When she woke, she found herself in darkness. She couldn’t move. She was going to die and she had no idea why…
When the body of Lola Evans is found in a local park on a cold winter’s morning, Detective Alex King and her new recruit Chloe Lane are called in to lead the hunt for the killer.
Days later, a second girl goes missing. It seems the two shared a troubled history, and were members of the same support group. What secrets were they keeping? And who is the monster preying on these vulnerable girls? As the detectives start to piece together the clues, it becomes clear that the murderer's reach goes even further – back into the painful past of Chloe Lane herself. Chloe realises that sh
e too is in danger – as she uncovers secrets about her own brother’s death which someone will kill to keep hidden.
Alex and Chloe are soon caught in a race against time to reach the next victim before it’s too late… and they must face terrifying truths from their own lives to have a chance of catching the killer.
Chilling and totally compelling with an utterly surprising twist, The Girls in the Water is perfect for fans of Robert Bryndza, Sarah Hilary, and Patricia Gibney.
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The First One to Die
Detectives King and Lane Book 2
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Strangers can hurt you. Friends can kill you.
Keira North falls to her death at a party.
What initially seems like it could be an accident is soon revealed to be something far more sinister as Detectives Alex King and Chloe Lane are called in to investigate the secrets and lies that link a group of four friends.
The detectives soon find that all of Keira’s three closest friends have secrets that someone would kill to keep.
As Alex and Chloe are fighting their own demons and struggling to stay on top of the case, Keira’s killer is circling the group of friends, who one by one find that their lives are in danger…
The First One to Die is a heart-stopping and shocking detective thriller that will have you gripped until the very last page. Perfect for fans of Patricia Gibney, Angela Marsons, and Sarah Hilary.
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Nobody’s Child
Detectives King and Lane Book 3
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‘Let’s play a game,’ said the voice.
She realised she had never felt scared before, not properly; not like this.
Why were they doing this to her?
Detective Alex King is called to a terrifying scene: a man has been murdered, in an abandoned derelict building, and a fire has been started. The victim had no home, no hope and very little to live for. He was someone who desperately needed help… but what he found instead was murder.
It soon becomes clear that this death was just the first of many… and that someone is targeting society’s most vulnerable. The people who most need rescuing, who have nothing left to lose, are suddenly at risk from a ruthless killer who leaves fire as his calling card.
As Alex fights the clock to solve the case before someone else dies, she suddenly finds her own safety under threat. Is this a figure from her past hell-bent on revenge, or could the murderer be even closer than she thinks?
Nobody’s Child is an unputdownable detective thriller that will keep you up all night. Readers of Robert Bryndza, Karin Slaughter and Angela Marsons will love this.
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A Promise to the Dead
Detectives King and Lane Book 4
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The blur of shapes began to sharpen, forming a clear picture that stood out against the darkened background. For a moment he couldn’t move, his fear rendering him immobile. He needed help. He turned to run.
On a dark night, on a mountain road, a young couple, Matthew and Stacey, are on their way home from a night out. Their car breaks down and Matthew leaves to look for help. By the next morning, Stacey is found murdered in the car and Matthew is missing, presumed guilty of her murder.
Called to the scene, Detective Alex King and her team soon see some terrifying links – to another local young man who is missing, and to the discovery of a body from 30 years ago.
Alex knows that the missing and the dead have a story to tell her. But will she hear it in time to uncover the killer before they strike again?
A Promise to the Dead is a totally unputdownable crime thriller that will have you hooked. Readers of Angela Marsons, Karin Slaughter and Robert Dugoni will love this.
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The Divorce
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I thought I knew how to help them. I knew nothing.
When Lydia and Josh Green walk into Karen’s office one rainy February morning, Karen sees a couple under stress, almost at breaking point. But working with struggling couples, finding out more about their problems, helping to save their marriages, is what Karen does.
But as Karen spends more time with Lydia and Josh, her sense of unease grows…
Lydia is something more than just a woman whose marriage is in trouble. She seems frightened for her safety.
Josh is angry, grief-stricken and seems to be hiding a dark secret.
And soon Karen herself is afraid – there is something about the behaviour of this couple that recalls traumatic incidents from her own past. There is something there that may be the key to saving them, if Karen can only unlock it in time…
The Divorce will have you reading through the night and the ending will leave you breathless. Perfect for everyone who loved Gone Girl, The Woman in the Window and The Wife Between Us.
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Acknowledgements
As always, a huge thank you to everyone at Bookouture. I am very lucky to work with such a brilliant team and am still pinching myself that I was given this opportunity (and am still here!) In particular, thanks to Noelle and a huge thank you to my new editor Lucy – it has been a pleasure working with you, and long may it continue. Thanks also to my agent, Anne, whose enthusiasm for my writing gives me much-needed confidence and encouragement.
Thank you to Stuart Gibbon for answering my questions relating to police procedure.
To my family, as always, thank you for the babysitting and the pep talks, for the food (I have been mainly powered by sugar while writing this book) and for all your support – I couldn’t write anything without you.
My last thank you is to Jenny, who in 2017 offered me my first contract with Bookouture. The last three years have been life-changing – both professionally and personally – and your ongoing support has been invaluable. I realised when midway through writing The Accusation that the name Jenna couldn’t be any closer to Jenny, but this was purely coincidental, and the character is in no way based upon you! Best of luck in your new position at Bookouture – I hope the future brings you all the success you deserve. This one is for you.
We – both author and publisher – hope you enjoyed this book. We believe that you can become a reader at any time in your life, but we’d love your help to give the next generation a head start.
Did you know that 9% of children don’t have a book of their own in their home, rising to 13% in disadvantaged families*? We’d like to try to change that by asking you to consider the role you could play in helping to build readers of the future.
We’d love you to get involved by sharing, borrowing, reading, buying or talking about a book with a child in your life and spreading the love of reading. We want to make sure the next generation continues to have access to books, wherever they come from.
Click HERE for a list of brilliant books to share with a child – as voted by Goodreads readers.
Thank you.
*As reported by the National Literacy Trust
Published by Bookouture in 2020
An imprint of Storyfire Ltd.
Carmelite House
50 Victoria Embankment
London EC4Y 0DZ
www.bookouture.com
Copyright © Victoria Jenkins, 2020
Victoria Jenkins has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work.