A Poison Tree (Time, Blood and Karma Book 3) by John Dolan Read Free Book Online Page A

convert him into a loving, faithful partner.
    It took less than two years for her to be disabused of this notion when Max’s affair with a married woman had turned toxic. The woman in question had taken umbrage at being discarded by Max and, at the expense of her own failing marriage, decided to go public. She had even turned up on two occasions on Anna’s doorstep and proceeded to rant at her. A restraining order became necessary when the unhinged behaviour continued.
    Max had promised Anna it was an aberration, and even he, self-confident though he was, had been shaken by the experience.
    Things settled down and Anna swallowed her pride and decided to give her marriage another chance.
    It was not long, though, before Max’s eye began to rove once more. His work as a management consultant required frequent business trips out of town, so the opportunities for infidelity were many and varied.
    After a while, Anna became weary of it all. She knew she should leave Max, but the shame and humiliation of her situation wore her down. She found she couldn’t bring herself to discuss her marriage with her parents or her sister. It became a conversational no-go area.
    Thank God, she reflected, that no children had come along. Though she would have liked a child, Anna could see that might be the final nail in the coffin of her relationship. Max was not equipped to be a father. Although he had paid lip-service to having children in the early years, those discussions – like so many others about the future – had petered out.
    Inconclusive .
    Like so much about her life.
    Recently, and in a last-ditch effort to bring Max back into the family fold, Anna had asked her brother-in-law David to play golf with him – which he now did at least once a month, although Anna knew David was at best a lukewarm fan of golf and no great friend of her husband. But he went through the ritual for Anna’s sake.
    Why couldn’t Max be more like David?
    Anna put the washing into the machine and switched it on.
    She sat at the kitchen table and allowed her thoughts to linger on her brother-in-law. Anna had recently asked him to give her his opinion on an unpublished work about infidelity. She couldn’t explain to herself why she had done that and the more she considered it, the less appropriate it seemed. She rationalised that David had always been there for her as a good friend, so it was all right to meet an old friend and family member for a private lunch or coffee now and again. Wasn’t it?
    Infidelity .
    It was everywhere about her. Two couples she knew well had recently split up over extra-marital affairs. Perhaps it was something to do with the Millennium, a feeling that everything was changing, that a new order was coming, that old allegiances and certainties were being blown away. Then again, maybe it was simply an excuse for bad behaviour.
    She took a letter from one of the drawers in the kitchen cabinet and opened it. It was an unsolicited job offer from Bright Sparks Publishing. Impressed with her work, they wanted her to go to London and take up a position with them.
    Anna walked through the apartment and stood out on the balcony that looked out over green fields and a branch of the Grand Union Canal. The day was overcast, but even after two years there, she still loved the view, grey clouds or not. The fields brought back the feeling of her happy childhood on her parents’ farm. At Max’s insistence they had taken the penthouse although it was bigger than they needed, and it had been expensive. But then, what else were they going to spend their money on?
    She pushed back her red hair and looked at the letter again. If she took the job she would be ending her marriage at the same time. That worried her less than leaving her parents and sister, who had been her support over the years. But worse than missing them, she would miss seeing her brother-in-law.
    And there was something not right about that.

 
    6
    CLAIRE
     
    “ Oh, I forgot