Rosamund Lupton - Afterwards

Published by Hachette Digital

ISBN: 978-0-7481-1840-3

All characters and events in this publication, other than those clearly in the public domain, are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Copyright 2011 Rosamund Lupton

Excerpt from Sister Copyright Rosamund Lupton 2010

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

Hachette Digital

Little, Brown Book Group

100 Victoria Embankment

London, EC4Y 0DY

www.hachette.co.uk

This superb debut novel has so many twists and turns as to cause dizziness its the literary equivalent of scream if you want to go faster and, just when you think things are slowing down to a peaceful, settled resolution, theres one more stomach-churning final turn in store

Radio Times

Luptons crisp insights into grief and familial guilt are married to a confidently executed plot. Free from the genres more mawkish excesses, Luptons persuasive narrative voice is what keeps this classy debut on track

Independent

A compulsive thriller with genuine originality. Very clever, very surprising, very touching. I devoured it

Louise Candlish

This sophisticated thriller is brilliantly written and utterly gripping

You, Mail Online

As the story unfolds it becomes increasingly chilling making for a totally absorbing tale that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the end

Sun

Poignant and thrilling, this clever debut explores the fascinating bond between sisters, and haunts you with the power of their love

Chevy Stevens, New York Times

Beautifully written you believe every word

Judy Finnegan, Womans Own

Tense, gripping and a total page-turner

Richard Madeley, Womans Own

This beautiful yet haunting debut novel describes the emotionally fraught and, at times, terrifying journey of two sisters and the ties that bind them

Bella

Luptons classy debut is a welcome and exciting addition to the genre

The Lady

A heart-tugging, tense mystery It is very good

The Bookseller

The twists and surprises are maintained right to the end of this satisfying and absorbing novel

Newbooks Magazine

A cracking read

Candis, Book of the Month

A skilfully wrought psychological thriller

Kirkus

Her journey towards finding out the truth makes for a creepy moving story with, of course, a twist in the tail. Luptons use of the second person, as Bee addresses Tess throughout, pays off creating a strong sense of their sisterly bond

Diva

Original, spooky and clever, this thriller is utterly compelling

Closer

To my sons
Cosmo and Joe

I couldnt be prouder.

To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour

William Blake Auguries of Innocence

I couldnt move, not even a little finger or a flicker of an eye. I couldnt open my mouth to scream.

I struggled, as hard as I could, to move the huge heavy hulk that my body had become but I was trapped under the hull of a vast ship wrecked on the ocean floor and moving was impossible.

My eyelids were welded shut. My eardrums broken. My vocal cords snapped off.

Pitch dark and silent and so heavy in there; a mile of black water above me.

Only one thing for it, I said to myself, thinking of you, and I slipped out of the wrecked ship of my body into the black ocean.

I swam upwards towards the daylight with all my strength.

Not a mile deep after all.

Because I was suddenly in a white room, brightly gleaming, smelling pungently of antiseptic. I heard voices and my name.

I saw the body part of I was in a hospital bed. I watched a doctor holding my eyelids open and shining a light into my eyes; another was tipping my bed back, another putting drips into my arm.

You wont be able to believe this. Youre a man who dams rivers and climbs mountains; a man who knows the laws of nature and physics. Hogwash! youve said to the telly, when anyone talks about anything paranormal. Although youll be kinder to your wife, not consigning my words to be fed to pigs, youll think its impossible. But out-of-body experiences do happen. You read about it in the papers; hear people talking about it on Radio 4.

But if this was real, what should I do? Push my way through the doctors and elbow out the nurse who was shaving my head? Excuse me! Gangway! Sorry! My body, I think. Im right here actually!

Thinking ridiculous things because I was afraid.

Sick, goose-bumps, shivering afraid.

And as I felt afraid I remembered.

Blistering heat and raging flames and suffocating smoke.

The school was on fire.

You were in your important BBC meeting this afternoon, so you wont have felt the strong warm breeze A godsend for sports day, parents were saying to each other. I thought that even if a God existed hed be a little tied up with starving people in Africa or abandoned orphans in Eastern Europe to worry about providing free air-conditioning for Sidley Houses sack race.

The sun shone on the white lines painted on the grass; the whistles hanging around the teachers necks glinted; the childrens hair was shiny-bright. Touchingly too-big feet on small legs bounced on the grass as they did the one-hundred-metre dash, the sack race, the obstacle course. You cant really see the school in summer time, those huge pollarded oaks hide it from view, but I knew a reception class was still in there and I thought it was a shame the youngest children couldnt be out enjoying the summer afternoon too.

Adam was wearing his I am 8! badge from our card this morning just this morning. He came dashing up to me, that little face of his beaming, because he was off to get his cake from school right now! Rowena had to get the medals so was going with him; Rowena who was at Sidley House with Jenny all those moons ago.

As they left, I looked around to see if Jenny had arrived. Id thought that after her A-level disaster she should immediately start revision for her retakes, but she still wanted to work at Sidley House to pay for her planned trip to Canada. Strange to think I minded so much.

Id thought her being a temporary teaching assistant at seventeen was challenge enough and now she was school nurse for the afternoon. Wed gently crossed swords at breakfast.

Its just a little young to have that much responsibility.

Its a primary school sports day, Mum, not a motorway crash.

But now her shift was almost over with no accidents at all and soon shed be out to join us. I was sure shed be itching to leave that small stuffy medical room stuck at the top of the school.

Id noticed at breakfast that she was wearing that red frou-frou skirt with a skimpy top and Id told her it didnt really look very professional but when did Jenny ever listen to my advice on clothes?

Just count your lucky stars Im not in bumsters.

You mean the jeans that hang around boys bottoms?

Yup.

I always want to go and give them a hitch up.

She bursts out laughing.

And her long legs do look rather wonderful under the