Above, the birds cry their if onlys.
Below – she is nothing but pain.
The rain splinters her thoughts into fragments.
Memories like lightning.
He lay in her arms and sobbed. She stroked his hair, kissed his temple, soothed him. They spent the night together.
Christie didn’t believe they’d never fucked. No one believed that. The gossips made up a story of an affair.
Sam loved her in a way. Trusted her. Hated her, ashamed that he’d allowed her to see the part he kept so well hidden – the tenderness he attempted to anaesthetise with alcohol when his wife lost her temper and pummelled him.
A kick. She curls away from the pain. A fleeting image of a baby.
The gossips made up a story of a pregnancy.
A flash of Kit sobbing against her breast. She kisses his eyelids 390and soothes him. He is grieving for his father.
Above her, a face, a gash of rage.
Below her, boiling water.
She fights. She fights until the breath is kicked out of her.
Then she falls.
Her light explodes into rocks and spume and the roar of the waves and the shrieks of dead gulls and she is all sound and sensation.
She flickers a moment … then goes under.
And she flies apart into a billion atoms. And she is the sea.
If you loved What We Did in the Storm, why not try these other dark and gripping thrillers from Tina Baker:
‘Dark, heartbreaking and totally absorbing’ LORRAINE KELLY
‘Gripped my throat and didn't let go until the final, searing sentence’ CAROLINE ENGLAND
‘A dark delight. Funny, violent, real and with characters you love to love – and hate’ JANICE HALLETT