_OceanofPDF.com_The_Girl_on_the_Train_-_Paula_Hawkins

“I don’t have time for this,” he says to me. “You’ll have to do it.” He
gets to his feet, holding out the spoon for me to take, the expression on
his face pained.
I take a deep breath.
It’s OK, he’s tired, he has a lot of work on, he’s pissed off because I
didn’t enter into his holiday fantasy this morning.
But it isn’t OK, because I’m tired, too, and I’d like to have a
conversation about money and our situation here that doesn’t end with
him just walking out of the room. Of course, I don’t say that. Instead, I
break my promise to myself and I go ahead and mention Rachel.
“She’s been hanging around again,” I say, “so whatever you said to
her the other day didn’t do the trick.”
He gives me a sharp look. “What do you mean, hanging around?”
“She was here last night, standing in the street right opposite the
house.”
“Was she with someone?”
“No. She was alone. Why d’you ask that?”
“Fuck’s sake,” he says, and his face darkens the way it does when he’s
really angry. “I told her to stay away. Why didn’t you say anything last
night?”
“I didn’t want to upset you,” I say softly, already regretting bringing
this up. “I didn’t want to worry you.”
“Jesus!” he says, and he dumps his coffee cup loudly in the sink. The
noise gives Evie a fright, and she starts to cry. This doesn’t help. “I don’t
know what to tell you, I honestly don’t. When I spoke to her, she was
fine. She listened to what I was saying and promised not to come around
here any longer. She looked fine. She looked healthy, actually, back to
normal—”
“She looked fine?” I ask him, and before he turns his back on me I can
see in his face that he knows he’s been caught. “I thought you said you
spoke to her on the phone?”
He takes a deep breath, sighs heavily, then turns back to me, his face a
blank. “Yeah, well, that’s what I told you, darling, because I knew you’d
get upset if I saw her. So I hold my hands up—I lied. Anything for an
easy life.”
“Are you kidding me?”
He smiles at me, shaking his head as he steps towards me, his hands
still raised in supplication. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. She wanted to chat in
person and I thought it might be best. I’m sorry, OK? We just talked. We