Ian Whitaker rushes down the bustling high street, his mind racing as if a hidden foe chases him. He has a boardroom vote in an hour...
Heres the menu, have everything ready by five; Im not going to spend my jubilee standing in the kitchen, the motherinlaw commands, though she immediately regrets...
I realised that my motherinlaw was ill, keeping her diagnosis secret while still fussing over meher daughterinlaw. Even now she was already planning how to secure...
I recall how my brother declared, Well spend the entire summer at your cottage, as if it were a simple plan. I had barely found the...
The air in the garden seemed to have stopped moving. It hung heavy, thick with the scents of summer and something bitter, acridlike burnt plastic mixed...
Oliver slams the fridge door, nearly scattering the contents, and a magnet clatters to the floor with a sharp clang. Emma stands opposite him, pale, her...
Ian drove off for a week to his lovers flat, hoping to reeducate his wife. He came back to find a new reality waiting in the...
Emily, has Tom told you anything yet? the motherinlaw asked, her voice brisk. Listen, were expecting up to twenty guests, so well start the preparations in...
At my late husbands funeral a silverhaired stranger leaned close and murmured, Now we are free. He was the man I had loved in my twentieth...
My future daughterinlaw once said, Only true mothers sit in the front row, and my son answered in a way that left everyone seeing the truth....
Cold Divorce: The Dream of Emma and James It is a strange, cold feeling to wake and discover love turning...
Did you see her, ladies? The old woman in our ward? I asked the other nurses, halfsmiling as I leaned...
Margaret lived alone on her modest pension, tucked away in a tiny Cotswold village where the world seemed to consist...
Family? Tell Christopher to come at once! the daughter shrieked. All three of the little ones have a fever, theyre...
I used to watch Eleanor sweeping the stairwells of the old council tower, hoping the work would build a future...
Oliver lived in a ninestorey council block where the walls were thinner than a teabag and every neighbours sneeze bounced...
Open the rucksack at once! the words cut through the air. In the bustling shoemaking hall of the Manchester plant,...
Hey love, you wont believe what I overheard it finally made sense why he married me in the first place....
Have you noticed her, ladies, the woman in our ward? Shes already aged Yes, her hair is completely silver. She...
June 12th Lake Windermere The annual family gathering by the lake always starts the same way: pinescented air, folding tables...