Deceit: A gripping, gritty crime thriller that will have you hooked. Kerry Barnes

knew she had him: hook, line, and sinker. Now, she would sleep easy; she had finally cracked the nut.

      Justin left the next morning for work. He had slept in her bed, and although they didn’t have sex, he did hold her. Lucy didn’t tell him that she had a scan that very morning; she couldn’t reveal the birth date or he would have smelled a rat, so, instead, she went alone. The baby was five months not four. She paid for the photo of the scan and put it in a card ready for when he arrived home from work.

      * * *

      That evening, Justin arrived with a bunch of flowers, much to Lucy’s surprise.

      ‘There you go. I’ve booked a table at Desperados, a new Mexican restaurant.’ He didn’t want to go to any place that he’d been with Kara. It just didn’t seem right, and also, he wanted to remove any thoughts that could possibly darken his future, although he was well aware that it was an uphill struggle. Every time his mind wandered to Kara, he thought about the baby and how he would be a good father. Lucy was sweet; he hadn’t really noticed at first, but as the weeks passed, he was beginning to find her loving nature a real asset and could easily plant a kiss on her cheek or rub her now protruding belly.

      The restaurant was bright and full of exotic pictures, sombreros, and Latino music. Dressed like one of the bandits in the film Three Amigos, the waiter guided them to their table after which he reeled off the chef’s special menu.

      ‘This is wonderful, Justin, such a fun place. Have you been here before with …?’

      He smiled and shook his head. ‘No, never, I wouldn’t take you to the same places I took her. We need to have a fresh start, and with our baby on the way, I’m going to make some changes. The insurance company will be assigning a building company to rebuild the house. Everything has been approved, and so fingers crossed, we can move in, hopefully in six months. There is a big team of contractors who should have the place up and ready in record time.’