The Long Weekend Read Online Free PDF Page A

Not that he begrudged her a penny that she spent. She worked hard, at keeping the house impeccable, looking after the children, looking after him, in fact.
    Colin didn’t consider himself sexist. He’d given enough women opportunities at work to defend himself against anyone making that accusation, and he would have been quite happy for Alison to pursue a career if she’d wanted one, but sometimes he couldn’t help wondering if more women would be happier if they followed Alison’s suit. It made for easy teamwork. Their roles were clearly defined. Their life ran like clockwork and their interests and timetables rarely clashed. In fact, apart from this one blip, it was a pretty perfect marriage.
    He glanced at the clock on the dashboard. He was in plenty of time. He was due to pick Karen and Chelsey up at half ten, which meant they would probably reach the hotel just after lunch. He’d spotted an article about The Townhouse by the Sea in the Sunday Times travel section – it looked idyllic. He’d checked out Pennfleet on the Internet and thought it would be fun for Chelsey. They could go to the beach, take a boat out, and there were lots of pizza places and ice-cream parlours that he knew his own kids would have enjoyed, so why wouldn’t she?
    At the thought of his children, he felt guilt nip at his heart: Ryan, on his gap year, living it up in Oz; and Michelle, in her second year at uni in Warwick. He was incredibly proud of them. They’d achieved so much. That was largely down to Alison and the attention she’d lavished on them while they were growing up, painstakingly helping them with their homework, running them to extracurricular activities, encouraging them to do everything they wanted to do. Not that Colin hadn’t been interested, but his working hours were brutal. He rarely got home before seven, and by then all the hard work had been done. He had, of course, paid for their education, and all the extras, and was funding Ryan’s gap year, and over his dead body were either of his kids taking out a loan to pay for their tuition fees at university, so he had contributed in no small way, but it was Alison who’d put in the blood, sweat and tears that had led to their success. Not that he spoiled his kids financially. On the contrary, he’d taught them both the value of hard work. They’d had jobs with him in the holidays: Ryan had worked at the factory, and Michelle had waitressed in one or other of the cafés, so they understood what it was to have your own money. They were grafters, like him.
    Now, he burst with pride when he thought about the pair of them, and it made him feel quite ill to think of them knowing his dirty secret. The secret he’d kept quiet for so long it had become a part of him, a piece of his heart that had turned as black as coal.
    He came off the motorway and headed into the service station where he’d arranged to pick them up. He didn’t want to turn up outside Karen’s house in his car, so she was leaving hers here for the weekend – he would drop them back here on his way home. He felt his heart rate increase slightly. This was one of the danger areas, where he might be spotted. It wasn’t beyond belief that someone he knew might have pulled in. He determined to get in and out as quickly as he could.
    He peered over the rows of parked cars to the Costa Coffee. There they were, the two of them, sitting at an outside table. Karen, her dark hair scraped back into a high ponytail, her face fully made up but obscured by huge sunglasses, her heels high and her jeans tighter than tight, a camisole and a cropped pink suede jacket over the top. And next to her, Chelsey.
    His heart turned over every time he saw her. She was only up to Karen’s shoulder, but she must be a stone heavier already. Small, plump, pale, worried, she had a pretty heart-shaped face with a perpetual frown. No eleven year old should look as if they had the weight of the world on their shoulders, thought Colin,