THE SECRET Keepers
THE STORY SO FAR: After attending parents’ evening at her 17-year-old son Nate’s school in her home town, Trish Hollis meets his encouraging new art teacher, Luisa. Nate is a talented artist and Luisa is helping him prepare his application for a scholarship to art college. On their way home, Trish and Nate bump into Luisa again, this time with her husband, Paul. Both Trish and Paul hide their shock but cannot avoid the unwelcome reunion. They were a couple 17 years earlier, before Paul went to work abroad, and Trish is keen to avoid further contact. However, her plans are thwarted when, the next morning, Paul waylays Trish on her way to work. He then asks if what he suspects is true – that Nate is his son, not the son of her late husband, Eric. Forced to confirm his suspicion, Trish begs Paul to keep the discovery of this bombshell to himself.
Sleep was utterly out of the question and Trish found herself wondering more and more if she’d ever sleep again. In the two days following her meeting with her ex-boyfriend, Paul, she went over in her mind what they’d said, and if she could – should – have acted differently.
Perhaps if she’d never agreed to share a coffee with him? That way, her frightened eyes and trembling lips would never have betrayed her – betrayed her late husband and ultimately, her son.
Wasn’t that what she’d done in admitting to Paul that he
