Showing results by author "Ali Mercer" in All Categories

It’s a beautiful day for a wedding. White roses scent the air and the summer sunlight streams in. A spoon chimes against a champagne flute and the room falls silent. And there he is - my husband - getting to his feet to propose a toast. He’s still handsome. His new wife is next to him, gazing upwards, oblivious. I’m not supposed to be here. All these years in the same town and I had no idea until I saw his name on the seating plan. He lived with me, once. Loved me. Small-town memories are long, but the people in this room don’t want to remember.

When I found out I was pregnant, I couldn’t have been happier. Ever since my own father died, I’d felt utterly lost. But you changed everything. Finally, I had found my purpose: to be the best mother I could be. But I couldn’t–wouldn’t–tell anyone who your father was. I could never forget the look in his eyes that day. The betrayal written across his face. All the things we didn’t say and the secret that tore us apart.

Stella follows her handsome husband Rob to the beautifully laid-out table in the restaurant he’s chosen specially for her 40th birthday lunch. Stella knows how they must look to anyone watching. Two people very much in love, with the perfect marriage and the perfect life. But Rob is about to drop a bombshell on Stella. He wants a divorce. If she doesn’t agree to his plan - to sell the house, divide the money, and award him full custody of 14-year-old Georgie - he will tell their innocent daughter the one secret he promised to keep.

Nobody talks about my mother. Absolutely nobody. I have no idea what she was like. I’d always thought they kept quiet about her because they were sad. But what if it was because they were guilty?

Your life isn’t perfect, but you’re still happy. Your husband has stuck by you, and he’s a good dad. Your daughter, Becca, makes your heart explode with love. And then, in the time it takes to say ‘bad mother’, there’s no longer a place for you in your own family. Your right to see your child has disappeared. Life goes on in your house - family dinners, missing socks and evening baths - but you aren’t there anymore. Becca may be tucked up in bed in Rose Cottage, but she is as lost to you as if she had been snatched from under your nose.

There are two little girls in the photo. I instantly recognize myself as the small, dark-haired child in the purple dress. But who is the girl with the long, blonde hair laughing at the camera? And why is the photograph here, in a stranger’s house? When I find the tattered picture hidden away at the back of a dusty cupboard in Amy’s house, my mouth goes dry with shock. Though I haven’t known Amy for very long, I love looking after her young children, in her picture-perfect hilltop house with its sprawling wildflower garden and bright, airy kitchen. 

A photograph of three young sisters. A forgotten pearl necklace that sends her tumbling through time . . . Present day: Single mother Elsa Dean is shocked when she inherits a sprawling three-story house from her estranged uncle. Elsa hasn't seen the golden stone facade in over a decade. Then an...