The Girl from Back Then: [Not applicable]

By Edward Hendriks

Some girls from your past you better never see again.

My own Brenda, eight months pregnant, was sitting back at home, but Lieve was sitting on the barstool right next to me, red-haired and freckled and, from the first instant my eyes met her green eyes, I knew that I would be making the worst mistake of my life.

She was just enchanting. I don't use that word very often, but she was, in the true sense of that word.

"Keep my crutch free," she said at one point, parroting Hazes and his mindless song. "So, she'll never come back," I thought.

But this story didn't unfold like the lyrics of that old crooner. She really did go to the washroom and, just a couple of minutes later, Lieve - that's what she called herself - came back.

She asked me if I would like to take her home. I could hardly believe that this was really happening. She was too young, I was too old and, on top of everything else, I was too married. And, what was more, I would be a father in a couple of weeks.

Of course, I should have just thanked her for her company and offered to call her a cab. Just three kisses on the cheek, and that would be that.

That's how it should have gone.

But it didn't go that way.

Twenty years ago, Paul Meertens cheated on the woman he had just married. Now, while he has a good job with an IT company, he is face to face with his one-night stand of the time, Lieve Breevoort. She is applying for the position of management assistant. Paul is upset, but pulls up. He decides to send a rejection letter and forget about the whole incident as soon as possible. But this time Lieve cannot be pushed aside so easily. He soon sees her as a dance teacher for his youngest daughter, as his wife's new squash partner and as a substitute at school. He is really starting to see her everywhere. Is he going crazy? No, it is worse than that. She's out for revenge and she's had a damn long time to prepare it…

A hard-hitting revenge thriller from Apple Books Bestselling Author Edward Hendriks.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Edward Hendriks
• Release date: Nov 30, 2020
• ISBN: 9781071543832

Edward Hendriks

In het dagelijks leven ben ik copywriter van beroep. Eerst in dienst van verschillende reclamebureaus, sinds een jaar of tien als freelancer. Ik was dus altijd al veel met teksten en ideeën bezig. Toch bleef de gedachte aan een ‘echt boek’ maar lokken. Geen boek in opdracht, maar iets wat ik helemaal zelf zou kunnen verzinnen.Toen ik in het voorjaar van 2009 een maand in Napels doorbracht om er de Italiaanse taal te leren, kwamen de ideeën voor een boek bovendrijven. Het zou nog tot juni 2012 duren voor de maffiathriller ‘Bloedgeld’ in de boekwinkels lag.Daarna wilde ik wel verder met schrijven. Wat volgde, was een nieuw verhaal dat zich wat dichter bij huis afspeelt. ‘Gezworen vrienden’ lag vanaf april 2014 in de boekhandel. Eind mei 2017 was het tijd voor thriller nummer drie: ‘Geen weg terug’. Begin 2019 verscheen de thrillernovelle ‘Het meisje van toen’. En eind 2019 breng ik mijn eerste jeugdthriller uit: ‘De heks van de Bergweg’.Ik sta open voor interessante samenwerkingen, interviews en andere projecten. Natuurlijk kun je me ook altijd inhuren als copywriter of ghostblogger.Ik heb drie dochters, een vrouw en een grote voorliefde voor Italië.

Book preview

The Girl from Back Then

A Revenge Thriller by Edward Hendriks

This is a thriller. All characters, places and events described come from the author's imagination. Any possible similarities to reality are solely due to coincidence.

Prologue

My own Brenda, eight months pregnant, was sitting back at home, but Lieve was sitting on the barstool right next to me, red-haired and freckled and, from the first instant my eyes met her green eyes, I knew that I would be making the worst mistake of my life.

She was just enchanting. I don't use that word very often, but she was, in the true sense of that word.

Keep my crutch free, she said at one point, parroting Hazes and his mindless song. So, she'll never come back, I thought.

But this story didn't unfold like the lyrics of that old crooner. She really did go to the washroom and, just a couple of minutes later, Lieve – that's what she called herself – came back.

She asked me if I would like to take her home. I could hardly believe that this was really happening. She was too young, I was too old and, on top of everything else, I was too married. And, what was more, I would be a father in a couple of weeks.

Of course, I should have just thanked her for her company and offered to call her a cab. Just three kisses on the cheek, and that would be that.

That's how it should have gone.

But it didn't go that way.

What was it?

The lust?

The anxiety about my new life as a father?

Or just the enchantment of her green eyes?

Was it the fight I had had with Brenda a few hours before?

Was it something trivial, like that evening's excess of alcohol?

I have often wondered, but have never been able to find an answer.

Instead of just saying goodbye, we put on our jackets and I went with her to her grubby little student flat at the edge of town.

Chapter 1

Monday afternoon

I have always been a real legs man. Even with the eighth applicant of that day, I let my gaze wander from her shoes (dark blue pumps with big heels), over her long legs, which were covered in gold-colored pantyhose, and upwards, until I came to the beige skirt of her suit. Then my eyes glanced further up, all the way to her face. At the very instant I looked into her green eyes, I froze. My flawless memory had brought me to the position I now held. And that same memory had now, within milliseconds, bridged a chasm almost twenty years old.

It was really her, no doubt about it. This red-haired job candidate with freckles had only been a girl on a stool in the bar back then. And now she was standing there right in front of me – at least as tall as myself – and held out her right hand to me smiling. I grabbed it. It was warm and firm.

Breevoort. Linda Breevoort, she said.

Paul Meertens, I responded mechanically. And I acted as if I didn’t know her as I pointed to the chair in front of my desk.

Sit down.

Every fiber in my body was trembling, but I just had to give no sign of it. She doesn't recognize me, I told myself. She doesn't recognize me!

I sat down in my office chair and picked up her CV from the oak desktop. The name that I had just noticed when I went over the qualifications of the next applicant was right there at the top of the first sheet.

Linda Breevoort.

41 years old.

From Amersfoort.

Linda?

I did remember a first name beginning with an L, but this name didn't ring any bell for me. Perhaps that was reasonable, since it had, after all, been a one-night stand. She might not even have told me her real name. Or I hadn't even asked her for hers. I thought I remembered that I hadn't given my real name myself, being afraid, as a newlywed man, that I would get a phone call the next day from someone I would like to see disappear from my life as quickly as she had come into it.

Everything all right? She sounded concerned.

I pulled away from the paper with difficulty and directed my gaze back at Linda. She did seem to be genuinely concerned.

Was there any chance she didn't know anything?

She had only been twenty-one back then. Still just a kid, in fact. And now, almost twenty whole years later, she still looked just as enchanting as she did back then.

Yes, I hastened to say. Absolutely. I've – uhm – I've just had a long day with this. I rubbed my face with both hands to put on a pose. You're the eighth applicant for the position.

Wo! Hope I still have a chance? She smiled.

I took some more time to study her face. Her red hair was gathered into a thick ponytail. She wore light make-up that made her eyes look a little bit greener and her soft pink lips a little bit softer. She seemed to be younger than she should have been according to her resume.

But it was definitely her. I was just about certain of that.

I smiled back at her and folded my hands together. Of course! Otherwise I wouldn't have let you come. Tell me, Linda – may I call you Linda?

Yes, of course!

Tell me why you want to work here so much?

Chapter 2

Monday evening

––––––––

In my car on the way home, it seemed like I was breathing again for the first time since Linda had stepped over the threshold of my office.

It had been a great interview. She had prepared herself well – better than all the other applicants, and certainly better than I had – and she had all the necessary requirements and diplomas. Although she was clearly not the type to wear business suits, she acted extremely professionally and could be described as entirely presentable.

The most embarrassing thing was that I had had an erection for almost the entire interview. When the interview finally came to an end, I didn't even dare stand up to shake her hand and show her out of my office.

I let the car pull out to the left and hit the brakes at the crosswalk. The rush hour traffic roared through the intersection. I turned on the windshield wipers, because it had started to rain lightly and the red glow of the traffic lights sparkled in the water droplets on the car window.

She was pretty, and she was good. And, she had definitely made an impression. I normally wouldn't have to think about it and it would have been her. But I could obviously never hire this Linda Breevoort as my new management assistant. Even though she no longer knew who I was (at least it seemed that way), what had happened in the distant past would sooner or later come out again.

Yes, I even saw that the same mistake would happen with her all over again. She still had that magic that she had when she was twenty-one.

I bit the inside of my cheek as I felt the blood flowing back into my groin again. Shut up, I told myself. Next year, or two years from now at the outside, and you'll be the head of the company, if old Pier drops. And if you damned well keep your head together.

I squeezed my knuckles white on the steering column. You have two beautiful girls and a fine marriage to a wonderful woman. Who just happens to also be the best mother in the world. You have everything, and you're not disturbed by anything or anyone. Certainly not because of some ghost from your past.

I was pulled away from my thoughts by an aggressive horn from behind me. I glanced in the rearview mirror and saw this guy with a cap in a van making angry gestures at me. The red sparkle in the drops on the windshield had in the meantime changed to a green sparkle. I stomped on the accelerator and crossed the intersection, just a little bit too fast, so that I almost ended up on the sidewalk at the bend on the left side.

Put it out of your mind.

Put it out of your mind.

Put it out of your mind.

I repeated that to myself like some kind of a mantra for the rest of my drive home and to my family.

But Linda Breevoort just wouldn't leave my mind. Oh no, far from it. It would get much worse.

Puss already welcomed me at the front door. I bent down to give her a pat, and she curled around my leg. When I smelled the kale stew upon entering the kitchen, I almost forgot about Linda. I kissed my wife and Anna and Nina, who were already sitting at the table impatiently.

I took off my jacket and hung it over the chair. I pulled off my tie and sat down at my usual place by the kitchen table.

How was your day? Brenda asked, stamping the bacon through the kale with her back to me.

Hard, I groaned. There were eight applicants for the position of management assistant. I opened up my laptop and waited for the screen to warm up.

So there must have been at least one good one!

I nodded and thought about Linda again. Yes, absolutely!

Brenda turned around with the pan and put it down on the table, then started dividing the stew between the plates.

I heard the sound of incoming e-mail, then saw the subject lines pour in onto the screen. My attention was immediately drawn to that one name, out of all the others.

Linda Breevoort.

Subject: Thanks a lot!

I hesitated a second, but couldn't restrain my curiosity. I clicked on the e-mail.