Read The Secrets Women Keep for Free Online Page B

lines.
    What did ‘S’ look like? she wondered, shivering slightly despite the heat. What sort of woman would have succeeded where she suspected many had failed? Her polar opposite? She ran
through the sex goddess clichés: large, bosomy, fleshy arms and legs, big hair, large-featured, smoky eyes, bee-stung lips. Her breath caught as she pressed her own less generous ones
together, watching her eyes well up. She looked away quickly and stepped into the shower, where the jets of water beat on her head, then her face, until she felt nothing but a deep, angry
despair.
    From the shower she went through to the wardrobe and ripped a choice of clothes off the hangers. What was appropriate for a wronged woman? Having chosen a pair of white linen trousers and an
aquamarine T-shirt (as inappropriate as anything else she had), she replaced the rest, slid her feet into her sandals and returned to the bathroom, hand-drying her hair on the way. Just as she was
putting on the merest hint of make-up – might as well remind him what he’d be missing – she heard the sound of the door opening. She braced herself.
    ‘Mum!’
    Anna. She rushed through to the bedroom, and hugged her older daughter to her. ‘I didn’t hear the car.’ Then she pushed her away so she could see her. ‘You look so
well.’
    Anna’s dress sense was nothing if not idiosyncratic. Taller than her mother, she was wearing a long flounced flowery skirt, a skimpy top that emphasised her skinniness, and countless
necklaces, and bracelets that clashed together every time she moved her arms. Her long dark hair was pulled back and fastened behind her head with a hibiscus flower clasp. Her face was pale,
elfin-like in its sharp lines. A pink sapphire nose stud drew attention to the curve of her nostril.
    ‘And you look, well . . . I don’t know. The same as usual, I guess.’
    Rose laughed. ‘Have you seen the others?’
    ‘Of course not. I wanted to see you first and I guessed you might be here. Pre-drinks shower and all that.’ She hadn’t forgotten the family routines that had ingrained
themselves over the years.
    ‘You know me too well.’ Rose took her hand. ‘Let’s join them. Oh!’ She lifted Anna’s once pretty hand to the light, now with nails bitten down to the quick.
‘I’m not sure about that one. Dad’ll hate it.’
    ‘Too bad.’ Anna twisted her wrist to admire the large silver ring in the shape of a skull that covered the whole of the lowest section of her middle finger. ‘I’m thirty,
for God’s sake. My life. Remember?’
    ‘I know.’ Rose pretended resignation. ‘Come on then. I’ve so much to ask you.’
    ‘Uncle Terry here? And Eve?’ Anna sat on the edge of the bed, rattling her bangles up and down her wrist.
    ‘Of course. I’m sure I told you they were getting here before you. Eve’s in a state because her case hasn’t arrived.’
    Anna smiled, knowing too well the hoo-ha that would involve. ‘You probably did, but I forgot. I was hoping to catch Dad on his own before they got here.’ She looked up at her mother,
lifting a hand to her mouth and scraping the top of her thumbnail on a front tooth – a nervous habit.
    Rose resisted saying anything. She’s not a child any more. She’s a grown woman.
    ‘Still, I’ll find my moment.’
    There was something in Anna’s eyes that worried Rose. She must want to wheedle something out of Daniel that she knew he wouldn’t easily give. Again. Rose put a hand out to still the
clatter of the bangles. She wouldn’t ask. Easier to deal with the request when it came, rather than anticipate the worst. Her thumb traced the faint but unmistakable white scars that marked
Anna’s forearm.
    Anna snatched her arm away, strategically rearranging the bangles. ‘Have they started arguing yet?’
    ‘Anna, really!’ Rose tried to sound disapproving. ‘They’re not that bad.’
    ‘Yes they are. They’re always bickering. At least you and Dad have never been like