by Daniel Hurst
“That’s okay, I want to get an early start today,” I tell him, knowing full well he will be intrigued enough to ask why I need such a thing, unless he presumes that there is a sale about to start on one of my favourite retail websites.
“What for?” he asks, putting on his tie and growing more dashing by the minute.
“I was thinking about seeing if there are any good jobs available,” I say, nervous to see what the response will be. It’s not that he wouldn’t want me to work. It’s just that he might not understand why I would feel the need to.
“A job?” he replies, pausing as he pulls on his suit jacket. I’d expected him to be surprised. Maybe it’s a silly idea.
“I didn’t know you wanted to get back into work,” he says, now fully dressed and ready to leave. “I thought you were happy not having to go to an office every day.”
“I was. I mean, I am. It’s just...”
I pause, not wanting to get into it just before he’s about to walk out the door. I don’t want to make him late. Then he definitely will be speeding.
“It was just an idea,” I say, downplaying it a little. “We can talk about it tonight.”
Craig smiles and moves towards the bed, leaning over me and kissing me on my forehead. “Whatever you want, darling.”
Then he heads for the door, leaving my heart aching a little at the thought of not seeing him until he returns this evening.
“Have a good day!” I call after him as he leaves, his footsteps thudding down the staircase before I hear the rattling of his car keys from the hallway below.
“See you tonight, love,” he calls up, before opening the door.
For a second, I can hear the sounds of the birds singing in the trees outside, the fields around our home filled with the sounds of nature as another day dawns in our rural retreat.
Then the door slams and there is nothing but silence.
Home alone.
As per usual.
2
CRAIG
I can’t believe Megan is thinking about getting a job. I thought she was happy with our arrangement. I make the money, so she doesn’t have to. I’m the breadwinner, and she keeps the home fires burning. I go to work. She stays in the house.
That’s how it’s always been since we got married. It’s how I want it and I thought it was how she wanted it too. But I guess I was wrong. Something has changed, and now she is talking about getting a job.
We’ll see about that.
Opening the driver’s side door on the black Porsche parked outside the house, I hop inside my expensive vehicle and feel the familiar thrill of knowing that I will soon be powering it through the quiet country lanes towards the train station. As I fire up the engine and put the car into reverse, I don’t even need to glance at the time on the dashboard because I know exactly what it will be. 06:15. On the dot. I leave at the same time every day, and I arrive home at the same time every day. I like my life to have structure and routine and as few surprises as possible, which is why Megan’s admission this morning has me so riled up.
Pushing my foot down on the accelerator pedal, I guide the beast at my fingertips down the quiet road, past the farmer’s field opposite my house and in the direction of the small train station where I will catch the 06:32 service into Central London. But my mind isn’t on the twists and turns of the route ahead. It’s on Megan and her desire to find herself back in gainful employment again.
Most women would be happy if their husband earned a fortune that allowed them to not have to commute every day to a job they loathed. How many people can say they got to retire at the age of twenty-nine because they had somebody willing to take care of them and allow them to enjoy their life, instead of having to spend the best years of it toiling away behind a desk or standing over a photocopier?
I know all about hard work, having left university with a first-class degree and gone into the working world, beginning as a Teller on the cashier desk in a branch of a Swiss bank in Manchester. With my dedication to the role and my willingness to learn, it didn’t take me long to become the Head Teller, and after some time spent working abroad in Head Office, I was on the fast-track to the senior level. I was Head of Retail by my late-twenties and head-hunted by the London branch to become the UK General Manager before thirty.
Fast forward three years, and here I am, just thirty-two and already at the top of the food chain in my place of work. Not only that, but I am also the proud owner of a seven-figure home in the Berkshire countryside and a breath-taking black supercar that makes me purr almost as much as the engine does. I have loyal friendships, made in both my childhood and adult life, as well as many hobbies, including football, badminton and squash. And to top it all off, I am married to Megan, the beautiful brunette who caught my eye on a night out in Manchester.
The only thing an outside observer would think I was missing would be children, but that’s where they would be wrong. I don’t want kids, and I made sure my future wife didn’t want them too. Megan is an easy woman to persuade and regardless of whether she did want them or not, I was able to sway her to my viewpoint, and now she believes that children are as unnecessary for a happy life as I do. That means that there isn’t anything that I want right now. I have it all, and everything is how I planned it to be.
Until Megan told me she was going to look for a job.
It’s not that I don’t appreciate my wife’s desire to earn her keep and do something more productive with her days than blow a big chunk of my wages on shoes, handbags or another awful cushion for the sofa. It’s just that I like to apply the same structure and routine in my life to that of my darling wife and that means knowing exactly where she is and what she is doing at all times of the day. There’s a good reason why I made sure to buy a house in the middle of nowhere, a long way from anybody, never mind anybody that Megan might have known before meeting me. It’s because I want to keep her at home, not under lock and key, but far enough from anyone else to prevent them from threatening the perfect control I have over my spouse’s life.
Megan thinks I told her to retire because I love her and want her to enjoy her life. In truth, it was because she is easier to manage when she is stuck at home all day and utterly dependent on me. But the fact that she wants a job threatens not just the routine I have put in place for her but also the large degree of reliance she has on me.
Her own job would mean her own wage and her own disposable income. It would mean new people in her life and new social events in her diary. Most of all, it would mean she isn’t totally and utterly under my thumb.
Not that Megan realises that. She thinks I’m the perfect husband and that she still exercises her own free will in our relationship. How cute. She has no idea.
That is the way that I will keep it.
But the unexpected development this morning means I have some thinking to do as I speed on towards the train station, going much faster than I should be on these roads. Megan would hate it if she knew I was going this fast. Then again, she would hate a lot of things about me if she knew them.
But she doesn’t.
I intend to keep it that way.
TIL DEATH DO US PART
Available now on Amazon and in Kindle Unlimited
Also by Daniel Hurst
INFLUENCE
Would you kill for a million followers?
Emily Bennett dreams of being a social media influencer, just like her idols Mason Manor & Ivy Lane. But shortly after Ivy’s untimely death she is contacted by a secretive businessman who offers her the chance at the fame and fortune she so desperately craves.
While Emily initially gets to experience the things she has always wanted, it soon becomes clear that her new employer had sinister motives for approaching her and it isn’t long before she discovers that the life of her dreams comes with the kind of conditions that are the stuff of nightmares.
Social media isn’t life or death.
It’s more important than that.
Influence is available now on Amazon and in Kindle Unlimited and is the first book in The Influencing Trilogy.
You can get Influence, Influencer and Influenced as a complete 3 book boxset on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited by searching for ‘The Influencing Trilogy.’
Also by Daniel Hurst
20 MINUTES ON THE TUBE
The first full book in the bestselling 20 Minute Series
20 Characters. 20 Chapters. 20 interweaving stories.
Here’s what readers of the series are saying about it so far:
Wonderfully clever. Some stories interlocked, some did not, but the book was gripping from page one. I devoured it in a day and will be starting another immediately!
Amazon reviewer
The psychological insight was fascinating, the stories were absorbing and the characters were 3D. I absolutely loved it.
Amazon reviewer
The books in this series are an incredibly easy read, you become invested in the lives of the characters so easily and I am eager to know more and more. Roll on the next book.
Amazon reviewer
I am loving these books and the ways the characters are linked. Fantastic series.
Facebook comment
The last chapter made me literally go “Yesss!” out loud! Great stuff!
Facebook comment
Available on Amazon and in Kindle Unlimited
ALL BOOKS BY DANIEL HURST
THE 20 MINUTES SERIES (in order)
20 MINUTES ON THE TUBE
20 MINUTES LATER
20 MINUTES IN THE PARK
20 MINUTES ON HOLIDAY
20 MINUTES BY THE THAMES
20 MINUTES AT HALLOWEEN
20 MINUTES AROUND THE BONFIRE
20 MINUTES BEFORE CHRISTMAS
INFLUENCING TRILOGY (in order)
INFLUENCE
INFLUENCER
INFLUENCED
STANDALONE PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLERS
TIL DEATH DO US PART
THE TUTOR
About The Author
You can join Daniel Hurst’s mailing list at www.danielhurstbooks.com
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He is always happy to receive emails from readers at [email protected] and replies to every one
Thank you for reading!
Daniel