After I’m Gone

My husband Olly and I share a perfect life, our evenings spent curled in our candlelit flat talking about all the places we’ll travel. But my world is shattered with the news that my sister has died in a tragic accident, leaving her two girls, Hayley and Mia, behind. The secret I’ve buried deep in my heart means I was never meant to be a mother – but I made a promise to my sister. I’m all the girls have now.

I give them everything – school on time in clean uniforms, our family’s favourite chocolate-laced chilli bubbling on the stove when they get home – but I never imagined being a mother would be this hard. Hayley and I used to be so close, but now she’s a ball of rage, screaming and lashing out wildly. Olly and I are reaching breaking point.

Then I find a Polaroid picture hidden in one of the girl’s rooms: Hayley is lying about the night her mother died.

I need to find the truth – before anyone else does. Even if it means digging up the secrets that have held this family together for years. Even if it means revealing my own…