SPOILERS!!!
I have to say that I enjoyed part of the book, I found some parts annoying. Besides, too much happens in the last chapters of the novel.
Things start going wrong when Patrick is accused of rape. When Alison agrees to see him, he tells her that he and a QC, Caroline, had a fling that week. They were drunk, and when they left the pub, they decided to sneak into a private garden for sex. Someone reported them and they were arrested, and then Caroline told the police that the intercourse was not consensual. Alison hears Patrick but she knows that he is capable to being forceful and she remembers the last week when he got carried away and he almost didn't stop when she asked him. Patrick says that he will have to return on Monday, but he is certain that the accusation is difficult to prove, and Caroline will withdraw her accusation.
That week Alison tries to be more active at home, and she spends more time with Clark and Matilda. However, something happens that turns Alison's life upside down. When she takes Matilda to the park, the girl insists they play hide-and-seek. Alison counts to a hundred, and then when she tries to find Matilda, she is nowhere to be found. People in the park help in the search, and the police intervene. Clark is notified and when he arrives, he is horrible, calling Alison names and even shaking her violently. Thankfully, Matilda is found; she had been hiding in some hut in the park.
When the family get home, Alison puts Matilda to bed, and Clark says that he can't do this any longer, and he spends the night somewhere else. The next day Clark comes to the house, and he starts listing the reasons why Alison is a bad wife and a worse mother, and he demands she leave the house that instant because Matilda is better off without her. I think that Alison was a fool here because she didn't try to defend herself, and she packs some things and goes to a hotel.
The next day Patrick calls her, saying that they need to meet. Alison goes and he tells her that she was arrested the day before because someone else accused him of rape. Alison guesses that the person who accused him is Alexa, one of the pupils, and she knows that this is indefensible, and she tells him. Patrick does not take this kindly, and he becomes argumentative, and the bartender has to come and Alison walks out.
A call wakes her up in her hotel the next day. It is Chloe, Patrick's partner, and she tells her that Patrick is dead. He jumped before a train, and now he is dead. Alison is shocked and feels guilty about what happened between the two of them. When she and Chloe meet, they say that they will have to talk to Madeleine now that Patrick is dead. Madeleine is very upset when she hears about Patrick, and she starts saying that she won't have James testifying. Something in her behaviour makes Alison suspect something, and she asks Madeleine if she killed her husband or James did. The woman finally admits that it was her son who killed her father. Patrick knew and that is why he insisted Alison take the case because she had no experience in murder cases, and he did everything to conceal the truth. Then Alison tells Madeleine her possibilities, and the woman says that she wants to plead guilty of manslaughter.
Now Alison has been thinking and she realises that she was a fool to let Carl trample over him, so she decides to go to the house to talk to her husband. She won't lose Matilda. Then Carl keeps saying that actions have consequences, and then Carl connects his laptop to the television. What Alison sees on the screen is the encounter that she had with Patrick. When she says that it was one-off, but Carl shows her all the texts that she and Patrick exchanged. Carl admits that he had some spyware installed in her mobile when she gave it to him to fix the cracked screen. Then Carl says that he wants her out of Matilda's life, and if she tries to make trouble, he will send the video to everybody she knows. Madeleine also realises that Carl was the one who kept sending her those threatening messages.
Alison is totally devastated, and the next day she has her mobile wiped. When she is walking to her chambers, she runs into Caroline, the woman who accused Patrick of rape. They talk, and Alison believes that Patrick did rape her. However, Caroline says that she thought to withdraw her accusation but it was her therapist who persuaded her that she was doing the right thing, and the therapist kept saying that actions have consequences. That is what Carl kept saying to Alison, and she grows suspicious. Alison says that she will need to see a therapist soon, and the woman gives her the card, and Carl's name is there.
Alison starts thinking that what Carl has on her is nothing. Why would she care if people saw her on that video? Carl has done worse than that because he has been blacmailing her and spying on her illegally. This is going to end, and she decides to go to the house again. When she lets herself in, the house is in darkness, and when she approaches the living room, from the door, she sees the television is on, and she sees the image of Carl handling a woman who seems to be dead or unconscious, and then he forces himself on her. Alison realises that the woman is her, and the video is from that weekend they spent in Brighton. When she walks into the room, she finds Carl with a rope around his throat, reaching for the coffee table. We later understand that Carl was engaged in some weird sexual practice of asphysation, but when he heard the door, he got startled and the rope tigthtened around his neck. He fought to reach for the coffee table to be able to lessen the clutch of the rop, but Alison did not move a finger to help him, and he died.
The epilogue that happens six months later shows that Madeleine pleaded guilty of manslaughter and was given five years, which she celebrated because she could well have got life. Alison tells her that if she behaves well, she may leave in three years. Alison has decided to stop being a barrister and now works for Chloe as a solicitor, so now she has more time to be with Matilda and be the mother that she should have been.
An intense read but the characters were very unlikeable. Alison redeems herself at the end of the book, but I found her too weak and selfish.
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