The Child

by Mandasue Heller

Genres: Crime Fiction; Thrillers

Synopsis

When Isla Hanson's husband, Jerry, dies, leaving his entire estate to her, she knows she'll be set for life. But contrary to the belief of his wealthy friends and business associates, who all seem to think she was only ever interested in him for the money, Isla truly loved Jerry and struggles to imagine life without him.

With no children of her own, and no real family to speak of, Isla is grateful for the support of her best friend, Tia. But when a strange woman and child appear at the funeral, Isla's entire world is turned upside down, and she is shocked to learn that the loving husband she dedicated fifteen years of her life to might have been living a double-life all along.

Release date: July 30, 2026

Publisher: Orion

Print pages: 320

Sample

It was 9 p.m. and pitch-dark when the door suddenly opened and voices and light from within spilled out onto the pavement. Huddled in the doorway directly opposite the unmarked building, a woman squinted at the silhouettes of the men who came out. Her stomach did a little flip when she saw the one she was looking for. When, at last, the group dispersed and the door had closed, plunging the deserted road back into darkness, she took a deep breath and stepped out of the shadows. Then, head down, her frozen hands stuffed into her pockets, she followed the man down the road to where she’d spotted his parked car earlier that evening.

As he turned the corner, the man heard her heels clipping on the concrete behind him and snapped his head round. At first, there was no hint of recognition in his eyes. But that quickly changed and a deep crease formed between his eyebrows.

‘What are you doing here?’ he demanded, casting a glance around to check that no one was watching.

‘I need to talk to you,’ she replied quietly.

‘About what?’

‘I’ve got a problem,’ she murmured, shivering when she saw the ice in his eyes. ‘And it’s too big for me to handle on my own, so I need—’

‘Let me stop you right there,’ he interrupted, giving her a knowing look. ‘Whatever you’re after, you can forget it. We had a good time, but that’s all it was. And I paid you, so that’s the end of it.’

‘I’m pregnant,’ she said. ‘And you’re the only one I’ve slept with in months, so it’s yours.’

‘Nice try,’ he scoffed. ‘I wore a condom, in case you’ve forgotten, so go find yourself another mug to hang this on.’

He turned away from her at that and walked briskly to his car. Angered by his dismissive words and the scornful way he’d looked at her, she went after him and stepped in front of the car to prevent him from opening his door.

‘This is your child,’ she hissed. ‘And it’s as much your responsibility as mine, so you don’t get to walk away scot-free and leave me to struggle with it.’

‘I wore a condom,’ he repeated through gritted teeth. ‘Now quit trying to pin another man’s bastard on me and move, or I’ll move you myself.’

‘It’s yours,’ she reiterated. ‘But if you won’t step up, maybe I should talk to your wife instead?’

His reaction was swift and brutal, and she cried out in fear when he seized her by the throat and slammed her up against the car.

‘You open your filthy whore mouth about me and it’ll be the last thing you ever fucking do,’ he warned. ‘I’ll make you disappear so fast, you won’t know what’s hit you. Understood?’

Unable to breathe, she desperately clawed at his hand. But he increased the pressure and stared down into her eyes, hissing, ‘I said do you understand?’

Too weak to do anything but give a tiny nod, her face crumpled when he drove his fist into her stomach.

‘Hopefully that’ll solve your problem,’ he spat, letting her go and watching, coldly, as she slid to the floor. ‘Now stay the fuck away from me and my family.’

In agony, she clutched her stomach and curled into a ball as, seemingly satisfied that she’d got the message, he tugged his cuffs back into place and smoothed his jacket down before climbing into his car and driving away.

Isla Hanson could hear the drone of her husband, Jerry’s, ride-on lawnmower as she typed her credit card details into the booking form on her laptop. He’d been going out into the garden so often lately, she was starting to wonder if he was actually mowing or just riding around to make himself feel busy. Retirement clearly wasn’t suiting him as much as he’d expected it would, and Isla wished he had thought things over a bit more thoroughly before selling his half of the company he’d co-owned with his old friend and business partner, Peter Jenkins. If he’d retained his shares, he could have taken the break he’d claimed he needed and then gone back to work. But he’d been adamant that he wanted all the way out, and Peter wasn’t the type to relinquish control now he had it. So Jerry was now rattling around the house like a lost soul; bored, irritable and driving Isla crazy.

Finished with the form, Isla waited until she received the email confirmation of her booking and then closed the laptop.

She had an appointment at the hair salon in half an hour, so she made a sandwich for Jerry’s lunch and left it on the counter, along with a note telling him that she would be back in a few hours.

As she waited for the electric gate to open a few minutes later, Isla’s phone started ringing. She quickly answered it when she saw that it was her best friend, Tia.

‘Hey, I thought you were supposed to be working today?’

‘I am,’ Tia replied quietly. ‘But my bride’s turning into the Zilla from hell, so I’ve left her and her mother squabbling over the brunch menu and snuck out for a vape break. It was either that or deck the pair of them. Which, obviously, I can’t, ’cos I need the money. But, my God, they’re doing my head in.’

‘That bad?’ Isla asked, using the fob to close the gate behind her before driving out onto the road.

‘Worse,’ said Tia. ‘But never mind me. Did you manage to book your tickets?’

‘I sure did,’ Isla affirmed. ‘It cost way more than our actual honeymoon, but it’s our fifteenth anniversary and Jerry’s sixtieth, so it was worth it. And it’ll be my thirty-sixth soon, so I thought I might as well roll it all into one big celebration. I’m just hoping he cheers up before the day, or I might have to leave him at home and go by myself.’

‘Is he still struggling?’

‘Yep. And so am I now he’s under my feet all the time.’

‘Well, this break should do you both good,’ Tia said. ‘And it might even pep Jerry up in other ways, as well,’ she added with a chuckle. ‘If not, I’m sure there’ll be plenty of sexy waiters to keep you occu—’

‘Excuse me. What the hell do you think you’re doing?’ a woman at Tia’s end barked before she could finish. ‘Why are you out here yapping on your phone while I’m in there doing your job for you?’

‘Sorry, I had a family emergency,’ Tia lied. ‘I’ll be back with you in a moment.’

‘Make sure you are, because I’m seriously close to exploding,’ the woman snapped. ‘I’m under so much stress right now and you don’t seem to give a damn. I wouldn’t mind, but you’re supposed to be the wedding planner and I’ve practically done all this by myself so far. It’s an absolute joke!’

Isla’s eyebrows shot up as she waited for her friend to clap back at the rude woman. But Tia merely reiterated, politely, that she would only be a moment. The woman muttered something under her breath and stomped away, and Isla heard Tia blow out a loud breath when a door squealed open and then slammed shut again.

‘Did you hear that?’ Tia came back on the line. ‘Now do you see the kind of shit I’ve been dealing with?’

‘Yeah, I heard,’ Isla replied indignantly. ‘What a bitch.’

‘I reckon she’s trying to make me quit so she can get out of paying me,’ said Tia. ‘But she can fuck off if she thinks I’m walking away at this late stage. And if she tries to sack me, I’ll have her in court so fast, her head will spin.’

‘Too right,’ Isla agreed.

‘Oh, well, I’ve only got to put up with her for a couple more days,’ Tia sighed. ‘If I make it that far without getting arrested, I might book myself a ticket and join you and Jerry on the beach to decompress.’

‘You will not,’ Isla protested, amused by the thought of Jerry’s reaction if her friend gate-crashed their second honeymoon.

‘Don’t worry, I was joking,’ Tia assured her. ‘Right, I’d best get back in there before bitchy-poo kicks off again. Thanks for letting me vent.’

‘Any time,’ said Isla. ‘And if she goes off on you again, give me a shout. You might not be able to deck her, but I certainly can.’

‘I might just hold you to that,’ Tia laughed. ‘Speak later. Love you.’

‘Love you, too,’ Isla said, smiling as she cut the call.

Isla felt like a million dollars when she left the salon later that afternoon. Her long auburn hair had been subtly highlighted, and the stylist had taken off a couple of inches, so it now felt lighter and healthier. She had also decided to treat herself to a spray tan while she was there, to give herself a head-start before she and Jerry arrived in Almeira for the joint anniversary and birthday trip.

Excited by the thought of revisiting the place where she and Jerry had honeymooned, and praying that it would snap him out of the funk he’d fallen into since retiring, Isla stopped off at the butcher’s in the village to pick up a couple of steaks for dinner before heading home.

When she entered the kitchen, the note and sandwich were still sitting on the ledge where she’d left them. Guessing that Jerry must still be outside, Isla looked out through the window. She knew he hadn’t left the house because his car was still on the driveway, but the lawnmower was now parked up and there was no sign of him in the garden. He didn’t answer when she called his name, so she put away the shopping and then picked up the sandwich and went to look for him.

The summer house and shed were both empty, but the gate at the rear of the garden was standing slightly ajar. The land beyond the gate sloped steeply down to a stream that ran past the backs of the houses on their block, and Isla knew that Jerry sometimes went down there to smoke a cigar when he thought she wasn’t looking. That, along with forgetting to eat if Isla wasn’t there to remind him, was the cause of most of their arguments of late. He wasn’t getting any younger, and his GP had already warned him that he needed to start taking better care of himself. But Jerry had never taken kindly to people telling him what to do – least of all his wife.

It was a sunny day, but the dense undergrowth and trees that lined the banks of the stream made it impossible for Isla to see anything clearly. After calling Jerry’s name several times to no avail, she was about to head back into the garden when she noticed two deep grooves in the mud to her left. They looked fresh and a feeling of unease stirred in her gut when it occurred to her that Jerry might have slipped down the slope and could be lying injured in the thickets below. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and was relieved to hear the faint sound of his ringtone coming from the garden behind her. Turning, she followed the sound across the lawn. It grew louder the closer she got to the lawnmower, and her heart lurched in her chest when she spotted the toe of one of Jerry’s gardening shoes poking out from behind it.

Jerry was lying on his side between the hedge and the machine. At first glance, he appeared to be sleeping, so Isla reached down and gently touched his shoulder to wake him. She cried out in alarm when she saw that there was no sign of life in his partially open eyes.

It was a bright day, but Isla felt like a dark cloud was hovering over her head as the hearse pulled up outside the crematorium doors. Tia, who was sitting beside her in the back of the limousine behind the hearse, reached for her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.

‘Are you OK?’

Isla nodded, but it was a lie. It had been almost five weeks since Jerry had died, but it still felt unreal, and she prayed that her legs wouldn’t give way as she climbed out of the car. Tears blurred her vision as she watched the pallbearers slide Jerry’s casket out from the back of the hearse and hoist it onto their shoulders. She determinedly blinked them away and raised her chin as she and Tia slowly followed them inside.

Several neighbours and a handful of villagers were seated at the rear of the small chapel, and the rest of the seats were occupied by Jerry’s old friends, clients, co-workers and their spouses. There were no family members present, because the ones Jerry had been close to had already passed away. He’d had no contact with his more distant relatives in years, so Isla hadn’t been able to personally notify them. She had hoped that one of them might spot his obituary in the paper and reach out, but none had. Still, Jerry had always insisted that she and his friends were the family he had chosen, so she was glad that the people who had been the most important to him in life had come along to pay their respects.

The service was mercifully short, as per Jerry’s wishes on the one and only occasion he and Isla had ever discussed what to do in the event of the other’s death. That conversation had taken place early in their marriage, and Isla had been horrified when Jerry had told her to bung him in a box, chuck him on a bonfire and scatter his ashes into the stream. She wouldn’t have dreamed of doing that even if she’d been allowed to, but Jerry had made it very clear that he didn’t want her to waste money on an extravagant funeral. She hoped he would have approved of the choices she had made.

As the curtains began to slide shut around the coffin, Isla and Tia rose to their feet. An usher led them out through a side door into a small, enclosed yard at the rear of the building. The funeral directors had already placed the mourners’ flowers out there, along with the small spray of lilies Isla had bought.

‘Who’s that?’ Tia asked, nodding towards a blonde woman who was squatting down at the far end of the row of flowers, reading the cards attached to them.

‘No idea,’ Isla shrugged. ‘She was probably passing and stopped to admire the flowers.’

‘More like planning to nick them,’ Tia said loudly. ‘Yeah, you,’ she went on when the woman snapped her head round. ‘I’m watching you.’

A blush seared the woman’s cheeks and she quickly stood up and grabbed the handles of a bright yellow pushchair that was parked behind her.

‘That stopped her game,’ Tia sneered, watching as the woman wheeled the pushchair out through the gate at the rear of the yard. ‘They’re so cheeky, these people.’

‘I’m not taking them home, so she’d have been welcome to them,’ Isla said, gazing down at the cellophane-wrapped blooms, some of which were already wilting. ‘It’s hard enough getting used to Jerry not being around without these reminding me that he’s as dead as they soon will be.’

‘It’ll get easier,’ Tia said, stroking her arm when she saw the tears in her eyes. ‘You’re doing really well.’

Isla nodded and blinked the tears away when she heard the other mourners coming out of the chapel. Peter Jenkins was leading the way, and Tia pulled a face when his booming voice ricocheted off the walls enclosing the yard.

‘Christ, he’s loud. I wish you’d let me hire a venue for the wake instead of doing it at the house. At least that way we could have escaped when we’d had enough. I don’t know about you, but he gets on my last nerve.’

‘It wouldn’t have felt right,’ Isla replied quietly. ‘You know how much Jerry liked having them over, so he’d have wanted me to do it at home – even if he won’t be there to enjoy it.’

‘Trust me, he’ll be there, watching over you,’ Tia said.

‘I hope so,’ Isla said, comforted by the thought, even if she didn’t quite believe it, given how sceptical Jerry had been about that kind of thing.

‘I know so,’ Tia said, reaching into her handbag when she felt her phone vibrate. ‘It’s Sam. I’ll tell him to call back.’

‘No, go and speak to him,’ Isla insisted. ‘He’s hardly seen you in weeks; he must be missing you.’

‘Is he hell,’ Tia snorted. ‘He’ll have been having the time of his life without me there to boss him around. God only knows what state the flat’ll be in when I get home.’

‘It’ll be fine,’ Isla said, glancing at her watch. ‘I think we should head back to the house, so you go and talk to Sam while I thank the vicar. I’ll meet you out front.’

Tia nodded her agreement and stepped out through the gate to answer her boyfriend’s call.

‘Hi, babe. Is everything OK? I was trying to get hold of you earlier, but your phone kept going to voicemail.’

‘Yeah, sorry about that,’ Sam said. ‘We’ve had wall-to-wall meetings all morning, so I had to keep it switched off. How’s it going?’

‘Just finished,’ Tia told him. ‘We’ll be heading back to Isla’s in a minute. What time do you think you’ll get there?’

‘Actually, I had a bit of an accident on the way to work and had to get my car towed, so I was going to ask if you could pick me up?’

‘An accident?’ Tia was alarmed. ‘What happened? You’re not hurt, are you?’

‘No, I’m fine,’ Sam assured her. ‘But it turns out the car’s not too keen on potholes,’ he added sheepishly. ‘So the suspension’s a bit knackered.’

‘Are you kidding me?’ Tia spluttered. ‘How many times have I warned you about those damn holes? And you’ve got the nerve to call me a bad driver.’

‘I never said you were bad, just too fast,’ Sam countered. ‘So can you pick me up, or should I book an Uber?’

‘I’ll come for you. But only if you promise not to cling to the sides of your seat and squeal like a little girl.’

‘Don’t drive like a maniac and I swear I won’t make a sound.’

‘Touché,’ Tia laughed. Then, glancing in through the gate and seeing that the mourners were no longer in the yard, she said, ‘I’d best get going. I’ll ring you when I’m on my way, but please be ready. I don’t want to leave Isla on her own with this lot for too long.’

‘No worries,’ Sam said. ‘Can’t wait to see you.’

‘Me too,’ Tia replied, smiling as she cut the call and slotted the phone back into her bag. She had been staying at Isla’s place since Jerry had died and had only seen Sam for the odd hour here and there, so she really couldn’t wait to see her boy.

About to walk around to the limo, Tia hesitated when she spotted the blonde woman with the pram sitting on a bench in the graveyard on the other side of a low wall. She looked like she had the weight of the world on her shoulders. Remembering what Isla had said about the woman being welcome to the flowers, Tia walked over to the wall and called out to her.

‘Excuse me, love … can I have a word?’

Bemused when the woman flashed a guilty look her way before jumping to her feet, Tia shook her head as she watched her push the pram away.

‘Oh, well; your loss,’ she murmured, shrugging it off as she walked around the building to join Isla in the limo.

Rain had been forecast for that afternoon, but it had turned out to be a warm, bright day, so Isla had asked the caterers to serve the food outside. Jerry had loved his garden and had always been at his happiest when his friends gathered there for summer parties. He would man the fancy built-in barbeque on those days, tossing burgers and sausages, while the men stood around swilling whisky and continuing whatever discussions they had been having in the boardroom during the week. Their wives, in the meantime, would congregate on the patio, where they chugged wine and gossiped about whichever one of them was absent that day. Jerry had known them all before he’d met Isla, so she had never felt that she knew the women well enough to join in on those gossip-fests. But she had always been happy to play hostess; making sure that everybody was comfortable and had enough to eat and drink.

Today, without Jerry’s presence to bolster her confidence, and with Tia on her way back to Manchester to pick up her boyfriend, Isla felt more like a waitress than the lady of the house as she wandered around with trays of drinks and sandwiches. The women seemed to stop talking whenever she went near, so she didn’t feel able to join them. And Peter Jenkins was holding court in the barbeque pit surrounded by the men, so she couldn’t join them, either. The invisible divide made Jerry’s absence weigh all the more heavily on her heart, and she found herself checking the time every few minutes; praying that Tia would come back soon so she wouldn’t feel so alone.

The caterers left at 6 p.m., and the few neighbours who had attended quickly followed suit. It was getting dark by then and the temperature had plummeted, but Jerry’s friends seemed in no hurry to leave, so Isla switched on the garden lights and the patio heater, then poured another round of drinks. As she was making her way over to the group by the barbeque, she heard a commotion on the patio behind her. Shocked to see that Tia was back and appeared to be having a heated argument with Peter’s wife, Felicity, Isla put the tray down on a table and rushed over to them.

‘What’s going on?’ she asked. ‘Has something happened?’

‘Yeah, I’ve just walked in and caught this bitch mouthing off about you,’ Tia explained. ‘And that lot were smirking their fake little heads off,’ she added, glaring at the other women, who collectively shrank back in their seats.

‘Nonsense,’ Felicity scoffed, the venom in her eyes at odds with the smile on her lips. ‘We weren’t even talking about Isla, so whatever you think you heard, you’re barking up the wrong tree, my dear.’

‘Oh really?’ Tia shot back. ‘Let’s take a listen then, shall we?’

She held up her mobile phone and pressed Play on the audio clip she had recorded. Isla felt sick when Felicity’s voice hissed out through the speaker.

‘Look at her, sashaying around like a bitch on heat. We all know the gold-digging whore used the oldest trick in the book to get her claws into Jerry, but if she thinks any of our men would touch her, she’s even more stupid than she looks!’

Tia switched the recording off at that and gave Felicity a challenging look. ‘So, tell me again how I’m barking up the wrong tree and you weren’t speaking about Isla.’

Caught out, Felicity’s mouth flapped open and a deep blush seared her cheeks. Then, raising her chin defiantly, she said, ‘How dare you record my private conversation with my friends.’

‘Are you serious?’ Isla stared at the woman in disbelief. ‘How could you say something like that? It’s my husband’s wake!’

‘It wasn’t about you,’ Felicity replied smoothly. ‘Your friend was eavesdropping and obviously got hold of the wrong end of the stick.’

‘No I didn’t,’ Tia shot back. ‘I knew exactly who you were talking about. And I recorded you because Isla’s my friend, and she’s got a right to know what you lot are saying about her while she’s bending over backwards to make you feel welcome. You should be ashamed of yourselves.’

‘Oh, do go away,’ Felicity drawled, flapping her hand dismissively. ‘Don’t you have glasses to wash or plates to collect?’

‘You’d better watch your mouth, lady,’ Tia warned.

‘What on earth is going on over here?’ Peter demanded, marching over to the women.

‘This creature is attacking me,’ Felicity told him. ‘She illegally recorded me and then somehow managed to edit it to make it look as if I had said something that I absolutely hadn’t.’

‘Liar!’ spat Tia. ‘You know what you said, and so does everyone else.’

‘She’s going to hit me,’ Felicity squawked, darting behind her husband. ‘Do something, Peter.’

‘That’s . . .