_OceanofPDF.com_The_Girl_on_the_Train_-_Paula_Hawkins

EVENING
Tom texted me to say he was going to be a bit late this evening, he had to
take a client out for a drink. Evie and I were getting ready for our
evening walk. We were in the bedroom, Tom’s and mine, and I was
getting her changed. The light was just gorgeous, a rich orange glow
filling the house, turning suddenly blue-grey when the sun went behind a
cloud. I’d had the curtains pulled halfway across to stop the room getting
too hot, so I went to open them, and that’s when I saw Rachel, standing
on the opposite side of the road, looking at our house. Then she just took
off, walking back towards the station.
I’m sitting on the bed and I’m shaking with fury, digging my nails
into my palms. Evie’s kicking her feet in the air, and I’m so bloody
angry, I don’t want to pick her up for fear I would crush her.
He told me he’d sorted this out. He told me that he phoned her, they
talked, she admitted that she had struck up some sort of friendship with
Scott Hipwell, but that she didn’t intend seeing him any longer, that she
wouldn’t be hanging around anymore. Tom said she promised him, and
that he believed her. Tom said she was being reasonable, she didn’t seem
drunk, she wasn’t hysterical, she didn’t make threats or beg him to go
back to her. He told me he thought she was getting better.
I take a few deep breaths and pull Evie up onto my lap, I lie her back
against my legs and hold her hands with mine.
“I think I’ve had enough of this, don’t you, sweetie?”
It’s just so wearing: every time I think that things are getting better,
that we’re finally over the Rachel Issue, there she is again. Sometimes I
feel like she’s never, ever going to go away.
Deep inside me, a rotten seed has been planted. When Tom tells me
it’s OK, everything’s all right, she’s not going to bother us any longer,
and then she does, I can’t help wondering whether he’s trying as hard as
he can to get rid of her, or whether there’s some part of him, deep down,
that likes the fact that she can’t let go.
I go downstairs and scrabble around in the kitchen drawer for the card
that Detective Riley left. I dial her number quickly, before I have time to
change my mind.
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 14, 2013