I SEE YOU an unputdownable psychological thriller with a breathtaking twist by PATRICIA MACDONALD (bookstand for reading txt) 📗

Adam frowned. ‘This sounds so . . . desperate.’

‘I am desperate,’ said Hannah flatly.

Adam nodded. ‘I understand. I have some user agreements in my desk that look very official.’

‘Thank you,’ she said.

Adam shook his head. ‘Don’t thank me. We may regret this.’

‘That’s what I’m afraid of,’ said Hannah.

‘We’ll do it in the morning,’ he said.

They gazed into one another’s eyes, conscious that they were both willing to go to any lengths to discover the truth. ‘Tomorrow,’ she said, and he nodded.

The next morning, they dropped Sydney at daycare. Then they went home to prepare. Hannah found a legal documents envelope from social services in her desk. Adam gathered up some paperwork, and they put their official-looking package together.

Adam put on a suit, and stood looking at himself in the mirror as he tied his tie. ‘Do I look like an attorney?’ he asked.

Hannah nodded. ‘Maybe it’s nothing. We can go visit her this afternoon and make it up to her for thinking badly of her.’

‘Nothing would please me more,’ Adam said, unsmiling, smoothing his tie down over his shirt. ‘Let’s get this over with.’

They didn’t speak as they drove to the Vanderbilt post office. Adam picked up the envelope and got out of the car. ‘Wish me luck,’ he said.

Hannah nodded, and he rapped on the outside car-door frame before he walked across the street and into the post office. She sat waiting for him, watching the world go by. She had driven Lisa over here to the university when she was getting ready to apply, many times when she was an undergraduate, and then again, when she decided to apply to medical school. She remembered Lisa sitting nervously in the passenger seat, looking like a child playing dress-up in her business suit, when she went for her interviews. Hannah remembered how proud she had been of her brilliant daughter, who wasn’t about to let her extreme youth, or motherhood, or anything else get in the way of her goal to be a doctor.

Please God, she whispered to herself, closing her eyes in prayer. Let it be nothing. Let this all be nothing.

The driver’s door opened, and Hannah started, and opened her eyes. Adam slipped into the driver’s seat. He was no longer carrying the envelope. ‘Seven hundred and eighty-five,’ he said.

Hannah pressed her lips together, and ran a finger over the key which she held tightly in the palm of her hand. ‘Seven hundred and eighty-five. Got it,’ she whispered.

It was Hannah’s turn to get out of the car. She waited for the traffic to pass, her heart thudding, and then she crossed the street and walked up the steps to the post office. She went inside the busy branch. People were coming and going, doing business at the window and filling out forms at the tables scattered around the lobby. She forced herself to look calm and walk slowly. She went over to the bank of post-office boxes and scanned the numbers. She found 785 and inserted the key. The door clicked and swung open when she tugged at the key.

Inside was a handful of letter-sized envelopes. Hannah reached in and pulled them out. She was tempted to tear them open right then and there, but she knew better. She jammed the letters into her shoulder bag, and relocked the box. Then she headed back out into the morning sunshine, her heart heavy with dread.

They did not speak on the way home. Without having to discuss it aloud, they simply drove home and slipped into the house.

‘Do you want coffee?’ Hannah asked.

Adam shook his head.

‘Me neither,’ Hannah whispered. She followed her husband into the living room, and sat down beside him on the sofa. She pulled the envelopes from her bag, and put them on the coffee table. They both stared at the results of their deception.

All of the letters were for Lisa. Some were handwritten, some were addressed on a computer. The return addresses were from all parts of the country, as far away as California.

‘Maybe she’s into pen pals,’ said Adam.

Hannah did not even smile. ‘Do you want to open them, or shall I?’

In response, Adam sighed and picked one up. Its return address was Alabama, a town only a few hours away. Adam ran his finger under the flap and opened it. He pulled out a sheet of paper, and a photograph fell out and landed on the coffee table. It was an ordinary-looking man of about forty, slightly overweight, wearing a hunter’s cap and camouflage, and holding a rifle.

A man sending his photo? Suddenly, Hannah wondered if all this imagined secrecy had simply been because Lisa was a little sheepish about having joined a dating service. Her heart lifted with hope.

Adam unfolded the paper and began to read. Hannah watched his face. His expression, studiously noncommittal at first, began to change. His eyes widened, and his mouth dropped open. Suddenly, he groaned. ‘Oh my God,’ he said, crushing the letter in his fist. ‘Oh, Jesus.’

‘Let me see,’ she said, prying the wadded piece of paper from his fingers.

‘Oh, Hannah,’ he said shaking his head. There were tears in his eyes. ‘Don’t even look.’

Hannah ignored his warning and began to read.

‘Dear Lisa,’ it read, ‘I received your response to my ad in the THFLG newsletter. I am so excited to meet you and your little princess, Sydney. You are a couple of beauties. I promise you that I will give her a first time that none of us will ever forget. I appreciate that you want this to be a special experience for her, and for yourself. I will be gentle and firm as I show that little angel the delights of a grown man’s love. The three of us can meet at my hunting cabin, time to