_OceanofPDF.com_The_Girl_on_the_Train_-_Paula_Hawkins

“His friends from the army. Have you ever actually been introduced to
any of them?” I shake my head. “Do you not think that’s odd?” It strikes
me then that what’s really odd is her showing up in my garden first thing
on a Sunday morning.
“Not really,” I say. “They’re part of another life. Another of his lives.
Like you are. Like you were supposed to be, anyway, but we can’t seem
to get rid of you.” She flinches, wounded. “What are you doing here,
Rachel?”
“You know why I’m here,” she says. “You know that something . . .
something has been going on.” She has this earnest look on her face, as
though she’s concerned about me. Under different circumstances, it
might be touching.
“Would you like a cup of coffee?” I say, and she nods.
I make the coffee and we sit side by side on the patio in silence that
feels almost companionable. “What were you suggesting?” I ask her.
“That Tom’s friends from the army don’t really exist? That he made
them up? That he’s actually off with some other woman?”
“I don’t know,” she says.
“Rachel?” She looks at me then and I can see in her eyes that she’s
afraid. “Is there something you want to tell me?”
“Have you ever met Tom’s family?” she asks me. “His parents?”
“No. They’re not talking. They stopped talking to him when he ran off
with me.”
She shakes her head. “That isn’t true,” she says. “I’ve never met them,
either. They don’t even know me, so why would they care about his
leaving me?”
There’s darkness in my head, right at the back of my skull. I’ve been
trying to keep it at bay ever since I heard her voice on the phone, but
now it starts to swell, it blooms.
“I don’t believe you,” I say. “Why would he lie about that?”
“Because he lies about everything.”
I get to my feet and walk away from her. I feel annoyed with her for
telling me this. I feel annoyed with myself, because I think I do believe
her. I think I’ve always known that Tom lies. It’s just that in the past, his
lies tended to suit me.
“He is a good liar,” I say to her. “You were totally clueless for ages,
weren’t you? All those months we were meeting up, fucking each other’s
brains out in that house on Cranham Road, and you never suspected a
thing.”