Page 58 of My Husband's Wife
He runs out and takes her free hand in hers. Erica steps towards the door.
‘Madison, meet my mum. Erica.’
Forty-Eight
Later that night, Madison mixes up the formula and offers it to Emily. Her little one feeds until she’s milk drunk and falling asleep in her arms. Madison continues talking to Camille on loudspeaker while sitting on the settee. Darkness has fallen so she turns the table lamp on. ‘I feel as though I’ve failed, Camille. I wanted to breastfeed until she was at least six months old.’
‘Sis, you’re putting too much pressure on yourself. I managed two months with Eden and a whopping eight with Francesca. You did your best and that’s more than enough. Not breastfeeding doesn’t mean you’re a failure. Some people can’t breastfeed at all, and it’s not their fault either. We women need to stop blaming ourselves for everything. Just be her mum. Love her, cuddle her, and be there for her. That’s all you need to do. And stop beating yourself up. Emily is perfect. She’s healthy, happy and beautiful. I am, however, worried about her mum.’
‘Don’t start on me, please. I’m still on edge with Theo’s mum turning up like that.’
‘I know, what a shock.’ Camille clears her throat. ‘But if I don’t say these things, who will? You need to start eating properly.’
‘I’m going to the doctor’s on Monday.’
‘That makes me happy to hear.’
‘Anyway I have to go. Emily needs changing.’ She ends the call. Emily doesn’t need changing but she needs a moment to think. Overwhelm is threatening to send her into meltdown. If she could lock herself in a cupboard and cry, she would, but she has Emily to be strong for.
She checks the time. Theo has been gone for hours. After explaining that he and his mum needed to talk, he took Erica out for dinner, promising to bring something back for Madison, not that she cared about the food. That wasn’t how she hoped to meet her future mother-in-law despite thinking she didn’t have one up until recently. She thought of all the problems Theo had been having with Erica. It’s good that they’ve gone out to talk so he can finally deal with them. Deep down, she hopes it will help with his agoraphobia too. Maybe his mother is the root of his problems. That and the loss of his sister.
She looks at the calendar, the one she gives to clients every January that feature all their best hair and make-up photos. In blue sharpie, it tells her she’s getting married the day after tomorrow. She texts Theo.
Just wondering how things are going with your mum. Also, do you know when you’ll be back as I’m getting hungry?
She isn’t hungry but she doesn’t want him to think she’s hurrying them, even though she is.
He replies instantly.
It’s going well actually. We’ve had a long talk and Mum has agreed to get help for her drinking. I’ll tell you more later, and I’m sorry she turned up out the blue. I’ll be about an hour. Mum is just having a dessert. I’ve booked her into a B&B so she won’t be coming back with me.
One hour. That’s all the time she has to go to the shed and see if she can discover more of Theo’s secrets. She grabs a knife from the kitchen drawer, having no idea how she’s going to use it but it’s worth a try. She places Emily carefully into her pram and wheels her out of the front door. Buster darts through her legs and stands by the gate, hoping to be let out into the woodland for a run around. She nudges the gate open and pushes Emily over the bumpy terrain. The torch on her phone lights the way. Birds flapping in the trees above make her jump. She doesn’t want to go any further. It’s creepy and pitch-black but she ignores the sense of unease welling up inside her. She nudges the gate to the woodland open and keeps pushing Emily.
With stingers bunched up around the pushchair wheels, she forces them forward until she eventually reaches the shed. As she presses the handle down, she leans on the door to open it, but it’s locked. She grabs the knife from the bottom of the pushchair and begins jabbing at the lock. Nothing she’s doing is working and she has no idea how to pick a lock.
She walks around the other side of the shed, leaving the pushchair. Maybe she can try to open the camera flap. Then what? She shines the light at it and pokes the knife into the gap. That’s when she sees the camera facing her from behind the glass, the glow of its red light telling her that Theo is recording. She turns around and sees bowls full of cat food and other morsels that the badgers and foxes like.
Her chest tightens. The hairs on the back of her neck prickle as she hears a branch cracking. It was too loud for the gentle step of a fox or a badger.
There’s another crack.
This time it’s coming from behind the shed, where Emily is. She darts around the shed, flashing the torch up, down, left and right but she can’t see anyone.
Emily lies there, rubbing her eyes. Clasped in her right hand is a clump of brown hair that isn’t Madison’s. Heart pounding, she pushes Emily back to the cottage, knowing that someone is out there, watching her.
Forty-Nine
She lies in bed, listening to Theo banging around downstairs as he attends to Emily. She doesn’t want to get up. Her mum has tried to phone her several times but she keeps cutting the calls. She sends a message, telling her that she’s busy.
Theo eventually came home hours later than he said he would the night before, and he’d brought her some dried-up pasta in a polystyrene box which she’d thrown in the bin. She’d been dreading him looking at the camera footage showing her poking a knife near his camera.
‘I’ve just watched the footage. What’s wrong with you, taking Emily into the woods at night with a knife? I think you need help, Madison. There’s something wrong. You’re not eating, you’re forgetting things… I’m thinking postnatal depression.’ He shows her a still on his phone, and she looks away. She looks deranged and scary.
Thanks for the diagnosis, Doctor No Qualifications she wants to reply but she bites her tongue. Her stomach gripes, probably because she’s hungry and hunger causes nausea and nausea makes her not want to eat. It’s a vicious circle and Theo is making it worse.
‘What were you doing out there?’
‘I told you. Someone was out there. I was checking to see if they’d broken into the shed after what happened at the cabin. I was scared, so I took a knife.’
