The Other Woman’s House by Sophie Hannah Read Free Book Online Page B

fourth in a run of a hundred prints, you fool. There are only a hundred of these in the world. Isn’t it beautiful?’
    â€˜I thought you didn’t like mass-produced things,’ I said, determinedly ungrateful.
    He was hurt. ‘The handwritten “4/100” makes it unique. That’s why prints are numbered.’ He sighed. ‘You don’t like it, do you?’
    I realised how selfish I was being and pretended that I did.
    â€˜My wife calls houses like this “camera-ready”,’ Sam K says. ‘The minute I stepped over your threshold, I felt inferior.’
    â€˜You should see the insides of our cars,’ Kit tells him. ‘Or rather, our two dustbin-spillover areas on wheels. I’ve thought about leaving them on the pavement next to the wheelie bin on collection day, doors open – maybe the council’d take pity on us.’
    I stand up. Blood rushes to my head and the room tilts, blurs.I feel as if the different parts of my body are detaching from one another, breaking off and floating away. My head fills with a woolly throbbing. This keeps happening. My GP has no idea what the cause might be. I’ve had blood tests, scans, everything. Alice, my homeopath, thinks it’s a physical manifestation of emotional distress.
    It takes a few seconds for the dizziness to pass. ‘You might as well go,’ I say to Sam K, as soon as I’m able to speak. ‘You obviously don’t believe me, so why should we both waste our time?’
    He looks at me thoughtfully. ‘What makes you think I don’t believe you?’
    â€˜I might be delusional but I’m not stupid,’ I snap at him. ‘You’re sitting there eating biscuits, chatting about wheelie bins and interior décor…’
    â€˜It helps me to find out a little about you and Kit.’ He’s unruffled by my outburst. ‘I want to know who you are as well as what you saw.’
    The holistic approach
. Alice would be on his side.
    â€˜I saw nothing.’ Kit shrugs.
    â€˜That’s not true,’ I tell him. ‘You didn’t see
nothing
– you saw a lounge with no woman’s body in it. That’s not nothing.’
    â€˜Why a property website, Connie?’ Sam K asks again. ‘Why Cambridge?’
    â€˜A few years ago we thought about moving there,’ I say, unable to look him in the eye. ‘We decided not to, but…sometimes I still think about it, and…I don’t know, it was a spur of the moment thing – there was no particular reason behind it. I look up all sorts of strange things on the internet when I’m restless and can’t sleep.’
    â€˜So, last night, you logged onto Roundthehouses and…what? Talk me through it, step by step.’
    â€˜I searched for properties for sale in Cambridge, saw 11 Bentley Grove, called up the details…’
    â€˜Did you look at any other houses?’
    â€˜No.’
    â€˜Why not? What made you pick 11 Bentley Grove?’
    â€˜I don’t know. It was third on the list that came up. I liked the look of it, so I clicked on it.’ I sit down again. ‘First I looked at the photographs of the rooms, and then I saw there was a virtual tour, so I thought I might as well have a look at that too.’
    Kit reaches over and squeezes my hand.
    â€˜How much was it on for?’ Sam K asks.
    Why does he want to know that? ‘1.2 million.’
    â€˜Would that be affordable for you?’
    â€˜No. Not even close,’ I say.
    â€˜So you have no plans to move to Cambridge, and 11 Bentley Grove would be out of reach price-wise, but you were still interested enough to take the virtual tour, even after you’d looked at the photographs?’
    â€˜You must know what it’s like.’ I try not to sound defensive. ‘You find yourself clicking on one thing after another. Not for any good reason, just…’
    â€˜She was