The Soulmate, page 24
We moved out of the cliff house a few months ago. I couldn’t live there anymore after everything that happened. I bought a cottage a few streets back from the beach and Gabe bought his own cottage around the corner. There is a lot of coming and going between our two houses. Forgotten toys being brought back and forth. Once, when the girls wanted to ride their scooters to Daddy’s without Mummy (there were no roads to cross), we even stood outside our houses on our phones so we could confirm that there were always eyes on them.
In short, Gabe is still a part of our lives. But he’s not my whole life. He’s not me. Not anymore.
I have reached my house. My cottage is small, just two bedrooms, a living room, a galley kitchen and a sunroom, but it is quaint and charming and full of character. I’d planned to spend the afternoon reading a book and drinking coffee, but suddenly I have a better idea.
I hire a board from the surf club and spend the afternoon falling off it. Turns out I don’t need someone holding my board and pushing me onto the wave – I can do it myself. Several times, as I ride the wave, I have that glorious, blissful feeling . . . like I’m flying. It’s even better than the feeling I had the day Gabe took me surfing. Because it taught me that Gabriel Gerard isn’t the only one who can make magic. I can make magic too.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
You know you’re onto a good thing when you tell people your new book idea and they enthusiastically cheer, ‘Yesssss. I’d read that.’
That was the response I got when I announced that I’d decided to write a book about marriage and murder. It was during the protracted 262-day Melbourne lockdown, and my girlfriends and I had started a WhatsApp group to chronicle our daily marital misgivings – Christian’s urgent need to mow the lawn every time there was homeschooling to be done, Sam’s repeated failure to put his undies in the laundry basket instead of beside it, the whisper of the air entering Stew’s lungs as he had the audacity to breathe. Suffice to say that by the time I floated the book idea, there was no dearth of suggestions of how the murder might take place*.
But while The Soulmate started out as an exploration of how we might like to murder our husbands, it quickly morphed into something else. An exploration of the bad and good sides of marriage. What we bring to it. What it brings out in us. I like to think of it as a murderous love story. Unconventional, of course, but that’s what I do.
As always, I owe a debt of gratitude to the people behind the scenes. Let’s start with my beloved editor and publisher, Jen Enderlin, whose belief in me boggles my mind on a daily basis, and the team at St Martin’s – Katie Bassel, Erica Martirano, Brant Janeway, Olga Grlic, Kim Ludlam and Christina Lopez, who, after so many books together, I think I can call my friends. Also to Pan Macmillan Australia, specifically Alex Lloyd, to whom this book is dedicated as thanks for always incorporating my down-to-the-wire changes (and, let’s face it, bribery for always incorporating my FUTURE down-to-the-wire changes!), and the wonderful Clare Keighery for managing my publicity. And enormous thanks to my literary agent, Rob Weisbach, who always has my back (and also my front and my sides).
To my sensitivity readers who helped me form a credible understanding of bipolar and the eroding effects it can have on relationships, this book is infinitely better because of you.
To Amy Lovat, my assistant and soon-to-be fellow author – as sad as I am that you are far too talented to be my assistant forever – I can’t wait to watch you fly.
To my writing gang – Jane Cockram, Kirsty Manning, Lisa Ireland and Kelly Rimmer – one day I’ll write a book about you guys and I legitimately can’t decide who will get murdered. Possibly the man in Big W who came up to our signing table, asked if we were famous and then decided not to buy a book. That poor bugger is going to have a painful literary death.
To Kerryn Mayne, my friend, another soon-to-be author and also police detective, who constantly reminds me that not everything that happens in Line of Duty is real. I respectfully disagree about Line of Duty, and if you keep telling me Steve Arnott isn’t real, we may have a problem on our hands. Still, thank you for everything.
To my friends and family, who provide me with endless book fodder. Keep being the gloriously dysfunctional humans you are. And to my readers, who have embraced my very peculiar brand – funny books about family and murder – because of you, I get to keep writing my very peculiar books. For that, I am forever in your debt.
________________
* No husbands were harmed in the making of this book. (Fine, Christian did suffer an elbow to the ribs one night while I was ‘asleep’ but no long-term damage was done.)
More bestselling fiction FROMSALLY HEPWORTH
The Mother-in-Law
You may get to choose your partner, but you don’t get to choose your mother-in-law.
From the moment Lucy met Diana, she was kept at arm’s length. Even after marrying Oliver, Lucy knew they’d never be close.
But who could fault Diana? A pillar of the community, an advocate for social justice, the matriarch of a loving family.
That was ten years ago. Now, Diana has been found dead. There is a suicide note, but the autopsy reveals foul play. And everyone in this family is hiding something . . .
A thrilling page-turner about that trickiest of relationships.
The Good Sister
Fern Castle works in her local library. She has dinner with her twin sister Rose three nights a week. And she avoids crowds, bright lights and loud noises as much as possible. Fern has a carefully structured life and disrupting her routine can be . . . dangerous.
When Rose discovers that she cannot fall pregnant, Fern sees her chance to pay her sister back for everything Rose has done for her. Fern can have a baby for Rose. She just needs to find a father. Simple.
Fern’s mission will shake the foundations of the life she has carefully built for herself and stir up dark secrets from the past, in this quirky, rich and shocking story of unexpected love.
The Younger Wife
The moment she laid eyes on Heather Wisher, Tully knew this woman was going to destroy their lives.
Tully and Rachel are murderous when they discover their father has a new girlfriend. The fact that Heather is half his age isn’t even the most shocking part. Stephen is still married to their mother, who is in a care facility with end-stage Alzheimer’s disease.
Heather knows she has an uphill battle to win Tully and Rachel over, while carrying the burden of the secrets of her past. But, as it turns out, they are all hiding something.
The announcement of Stephen and Heather’s engagement threatens to set off a family implosion, with old wounds and dark secrets finally being forced to the surface.
A garage full of stolen goods. An old hot-water bottle, stuffed with cash. A blood-soaked wedding. And that’s only the beginning . . .
About the author
Sally Hepworth is the New York Times bestselling author of seven novels, including The Good Sister and The Younger Wife.
Drawing on the good, the bad and the downright odd of human behaviour, Sally writes incisively about family, relationships and identity. Her domestic thriller novels are laced with quirky humour, sass and a darkly charming tone. They are available worldwide in English and have been translated into twenty languages.
Sally lives in Melbourne, Australia, with her husband, three children and one adorable dog.
Pan Macmillan acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today. We honour more than sixty thousand years of storytelling, art and culture.
First published 2022 in Macmillan by Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Limited
1 Market Street, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 2000
Copyright © Sally Hepworth 2022
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Cataloguing-in-Publication entry is available
from the National Library of Australia
http://catalogue.nla.gov.au
EPUB format: 9781761263064
Typeset by Midland Typesetters, Australia
Cover design by Christa Moffitt, Christabella Designs
Cover images: Shutterstock
The characters in this book are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Any health or medical content contained in this book is not intended as health or medical advice. The publishers and their respective employees, agents and authors are not liable for injuries or damage occasioned to any person as a result of reading or following any health or medical content contained in this book.
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Sally Hepworth, The Soulmate
