Showing results by publisher "Hachette UK - Bookouture" in Psychological

It only took a moment for everything to go wrong. In the blink of an eye, the birthday party became a nightmare when we heard the screams… How did this happen? And who is to blame? I’m so happy as I walk to pick up my son from the party. It’s his first since we moved here, and I know he’s found it hard settling in. Just as I’ve found it hard to make friends among the mothers at the school gates. But as I turn the corner, my heart stops. Instead of the picture-perfect birthday party I left earlier, there’s an ambulance.

To celebrate my special birthday, my husband and I have returned to the beautiful Greek island village where we spent our honeymoon. As the boat pulls in to the harbor, I feel hope rise in my heart. The white houses, the blue doors, the brilliant turquoise of the sea, are just as I remember. If two weeks in this paradise won’t fix our marriage, nothing will. But then the next day a boat arrives, full of my friends and family. My grown-up children jump on to the shore, grinning and holding balloons. My husband beams at me and says, “Surprise!” I can’t believe it.

Mein Mann ist tot. Eine Fremde steht vor meiner Tür. Sie sagt, mein Haus gehört ihr ... Nur wenige Tage nach dem plötzlichen Tod meines Mannes klingelt es an der Tür. Vor mir steht eine fremde Frau. Sie hat einen kleinen Jungen auf dem Arm und trägt genau das gleiche Diamantenarmband am Handgelenk wie ich. Als ich sie hereinbitte, bemerke ich, wie beim Anblick unseres geräumigem, liebevoll eingerichteten Zuhauses ihre Augen groß werden. Sie wirft einen Blick auf die silbergerahmten Familienfotos und meine kleine Tochter, die sich hinter mir versteckt. Sie sieht mich mit ernsten blauen Augen an

I stand at my father’s funeral, tears rolling down my cheeks. Someone puts a hand on my shoulder, pulling me into a hug. As I look into the face of a woman I’ve never seen before, she whispers something that shatters my world. “He was my father too.” Staring into the woman’s glassy gray eyes, I pray that she’s lying. I can’t believe that my steady, dependable father could do this to me. But a hush falls over my family as my ‘new sister’ Ava spills secrets about his hidden affairs and how he bought her silence. Now she’s finally free, she wants to be a part of the family.

Lily has always had a simple dream: to be happy like her parents were. But their love story was cut tragically short when - after a devastating battle with cancer - Lily’s mother died. Lily was heartbroken, but also desperately worried about her grieving dad, not to mention five-year-old Emma. So, Lily is shocked and concerned when he suddenly decides to remarry. It’s only Lily who can’t trust her. Who won’t trust her. And when Emma goes missing - could Lily be right? What if the greatest danger to them all is the woman now living in their family home?

I place my tiny, newborn baby in the box. A ‘safe haven’, they call it, for unwanted babies. She’ll be warm, someone will find her soon. She’ll be cared for. But not by me. I will always want her, but I can never be her mother. And she can never know why.

The gorgeous French stone villa is just as I remembered it. I was anxious about coming back here after all this time. But as I see the faces of my best friends, I know I made the right decision. A weekend away is just what I need. That was until Frederick arrived… Putting on a smile, I pretend that his presence doesn’t affect me. But as I make my way down to an old wine cellar to get supplies for our first dinner together, I sense Frederick near me in the dim light. And then it happens: the old door swings shut, trapping us both inside.

The moment I first gazed into Alex's soulful gray eyes, I knew I'd met the man I wanted to spend my life with. And I was right. When my beloved sister vanished, Alex put up posters and wiped away my tears after bad dream—she put me back together. But when police pull a crumpled photo from my dead sister's pocket, and I see my husband's familiar face smiling back at me, my perfect world shatters.

Fifteen-year-old Kayla is the apple of her parents’ eyes, their beautiful only daughter. They tried for so long to have her that she was even more precious when she arrived. But deep down, her mother Sherrie has always been terrified that their worst fear would come true: that Kayla would be taken from them. Then one day—just as Sherrie had dreaded—Kayla fails to return home after a sleepover. In desperation, Sherrie and her husband Richard call Kayla’s friends. They scour the streets, their search becoming more frantic. Until the police arrive and deliver the shocking news.

I first start worrying about my beautiful daughter Lennie when she claims her imaginary friend told her not to trust me or her father, Nathan. And as she retreats further into her own world and pushes us away, it feels like we are losing our little girl. Then one evening I see a shadowy figure in Lennie’s bedroom window, and I begin to worry her friend isn’t imaginary at all…

The phone rings. What Eva doesn’t realize is that the call will signal the end of what she knows to be true. The end of trusting her family. And the end of everything keeping her safe. The phone call is from a hospital hundreds of miles away. A woman has been admitted with a serious head injury, saying she’s Eva’s older sister. A sister Eva never knew she had. Whose name - Nancy - has never once been mentioned by her parents. It seems impossible. Could the two people who brought Eva up have lied to her for her whole life?

Day one. As my eyes adjust to the darkness, I slowly start to recognise my surroundings: the small hole in the door and a narrow window allowing only a small chink of light. The jewellery given to me by my loving husband is gone and I am wearing someone else’s clothes. The room is exactly as the first woman described. And the second. And the third… It’s then I know, I am the fifth woman to be taken.

When Tessa arrives at the little house by the lake with her two children, it is an escape. The rental house may be a bit small – but it’s theirs for the summer. A place to hide.... However, their isolation is disrupted by the family from the big house next door. Three children and their glamorous mother Rebecca – who seems determined to invite Tessa into their lives.

I don’t want the perfect marriage. I want revenge… If you had met me a year ago, you wouldn’t have noticed me. A beautiful woman, but a struggling nobody in a tiny apartment, invisible… Meeting Paul changed that. And now here I am in Paris, after a whirlwind courtship and a stunning beach proposal I smile at my handsome husband, my eyes shining in the candlelight, my huge diamond ring sparkling on the starched white tablecloth. Other women look at me in envy. They see a couple completely in love.

I made a new friend at playgroup today. She’s different from the other mothers. She feels like someone I can trust. Someone I can confide in. But there are some things I can’t tell her. Things I can’t tell anyone. Because I have a secret that no one else knows. One that still haunts my dreams, wakes me up in cold sweat at night. Even another mother would never understand. Unless, of course, she’s hiding something, too.

After her dad’s funeral, all Jodie wants is to clear out her childhood home as quickly as possible and get back to life with her son. But a terrifying discovery changes everything she knew about her kind, loving father. Her boyfriend Ben went missing when they were just teenagers. His parents still stare out the window desperately waiting for him to come home. So how did the T-shirt he was wearing when Jodie saw him walk away from their last date end up in her father’s attic? The search for answers leads Jodie to an old family friend who knows all her father’s secrets.

"Your son is missing," they say, and life as I know it is over. "Where would he go?" the police ask. "Where would he be?" my daughter begs. My heart races as images flash in my mind. The cabin we rent every autumn, surrounded by fiery-red maple trees. Voices raised. Tears falling. A marriage falling apart. And worst of all my husband telling our child, Theo, to run. The rest is a blank in my memory. If I close my eyes I can almost see it. A betrayal that has left me alone, in tatters, grieving for what we had.

I haven’t lived here long. The house is small and a little run-down, but each piece of faded floral wallpaper I peel away feels like unwrapping the second chance I never thought I’d get. I’m finally free to wear what I want, and I don’t flinch when I accidently burn dinner. My new home is warm, and the kids are safe inside. Anywhere would feel idyllic after the nightmare marriage I’ve just escaped.

I pinch the screen to zoom until I’m staring at the face of a ghost. A man with very short hair, staring directly at the camera with piercing brown eyes. He is as he was when I last saw him: wrinkles around the corners of the eyes and a knowing smirk. That’s the expression I see when I can’t sleep. My body tenses. It can’t be him. It’s not my ex-husband. It’s not David. I know that better than anyone because he didn’t walk out on me. He didn’t disappear two years ago and he’s not a missing person. I know that for a fact because I’m the one who killed him.

It’s been six months since I woke up next to the body of the man I’d chatted to in a bar the night before. I still remember the metallic scent of his blood, the stillness of the room, and the panic that rose in my throat when I realized he was dead. I remember him buying cocktails. We talked. We went up to my room. And then...nothing. But I know I didn’t kill him.