The new neighbour

A blonde beauty has moved in next door and Vicky’s suspicions are mounting

I’ll buy you a dog. You’ll never be lonely again.”

“Well, Matt got that wrong. I’ve never felt so alone.” Vicky hugged the puppy in her arms, cursing her naivety as she recalled her husband’s parting shot two weeks ago.

It had been their first serious row, but Vicky had sensed it brewing for months. Matt had been staying increasingly late at work. Vicky should have realised his excuses were lies. As if his entire team would be on holiday at the same time!

Although, to be fair, it was August; families were escaping for a summer break. It was the very point that had provoked their spat.

“The park was packed with kids,” she’d said that morning, after her run. It wasn’t that she disliked children. She desperately wanted a baby. But Matt didn’t. She’d flicked on the TV to fill the silence; a family holiday advert blared out. “Don’t you want that to be us?”

Matt grabbed the remote control and changed the channel.

“Don’t you think I’d be a good mum?” “I thought you were worried how you’d fit kids around your career?” Matt said at last.

“Well, what with the firm being taken over, my redundancy...”

“So you’re bored and need something else to occupy you.”

Vicky fought rising irritation. She knew Matt was a workaholic. His sister Louise, a fashion designer living in Paris, was the same, although Vicky had never met her. She’d been “too busy” to come to their wedding three years ago.

“No, I’m not bored. Perhaps a bit... lonely.” “Fine, I’ll buy you a dog. You’ll never be lonely again.”

Vicky had assumed Matt was teasing, but the following Monday, he’d surprised her with an adorable Cavachon puppy – and Vicky surprised herself with a new business idea. She could become a dog walker. Expecting Matt to laugh at her, she’d been astonished when he conjured up her first client: their new next-door neighbour.

“She’s a single mum. Works long hours. Her kid Tommy is four.” Matt shrugged. “No dogs allowed at the childminder’s.”

“What kind of dog?” Vicky said excitedly, forgetting to ask: how do you know all this? “Twelve-week-old Cavachon.”

“Wow. Same as our Tash. That’s a coincidence.”

Vicky kicked herself now for not realising exactly how much of a “coincidence” it was. She’d met Pepper this morning, and the puppy was so like Tash, they had to be from the same litter – and Matt must have bought them at the same time.

One puppy for his wife; one for his mistress... and his secret son.

“How could he do this to me?” Burying her face in Tash’s soft fur, she replayed the memory of her distressing morning.

She’d felt like an intruder creeping into her neighbour’s house, even though she had a key. Matt had given it to her, which meant he must have been to the house.

Hurrying to the kitchen, Vicky let an excitable Pepper out of his crate. “Ah, you’re just like Tash. Do you want to meet her?” She was about to head back to the front door when she spotted a phone on the kitchen table... with the exact same case and jagged crack on the screen as Matt’s. Because it was his phone.

Telling herself he must have left it by accident when he’d picked up the key, Vicky’s certainty evaporated when she noticed some photos on the fridge.

It wasn’t her new neighbour’s blondehaired beauty that made Vicky’s heart plummet as she studied the pictures; it was the fact that Matt had his arm around the woman – and Tommy, wedged between them, was the spitting image of Matt as a boy.

Vicky barely looked up as Matt arrived home that evening, late again. Had he been with her?

“So, how was your first day at the new job?” he asked.

“Interesting. Turns out my new boss and I have a lot in common.” “Oh?”

“You. We have you in common. You didn’t think this through, did you? Setting me up as a dogwalker for your mistress. You left your phone on her kitchen table.”

He blushed. “It’s my old one. I lent it to her until she can sort a new one. She moved house in a rush. Genevieve isn’t my mistress, Vicky. She’s my sister. And Tommy’s my nephew.”

Vicky rolled her eyes. “Your sister’s name is Louise. She lives in Paris.”

“She’s using a fake name to throw her husband off the scent. Richard’s a monster. I’ve been trying to get Lou away from him. I thought it best you didn’t know, Vicks. In case Richard shows up. He can be... aggressive.”

Burying her face in Tash’s soft fur, she replayed the distressing morning

Vicky felt sick. “Does he hurt Louise? Has he ever hurt Tommy?”

“Coercive intimidation, mainly. But Lou and I grew up with a bully for a dad, so...”

“So that’s why you’ve been reluctant to become a father.”

“I don’t want to turn out like

him, Vicks.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“I guess I’ve been afraid to find out.” He paused. “Until now.”

“Do you mean...?”

“I mean, I feel much better now that Lou and Tommy are here where I can watch over them.”

“And all those hours at the office?”

“You wouldn’t believe the logistics of starting a new life.”

Vicky winced. “I hope I never have to find out.”

“That’s a shame.” Matt came to sit next to her on the sofa. “I was hoping we could start a new life ourselves.”

Tash wriggled between them.

Vicky laughed. “I think someone might be jealous.”

“Tash is still our baby. But I reckon it’s time we tried for a less furry one. Don’t you?”

Vicky leaned over to kiss him. “I do.”