Free The Life and Second Life of Charlie Brackwood (The Brackwood Series Book 2) by Stacey Field

her lustrous hair back, and the other was placed on her right hip. The photo was mesmerising and I wondered whether the photographer had captured a glimpse of her carefree spirit or if the pose had been staged.
    Seeing her image lent life to her for me, as if I had known her myself. I turned the page again and found a picture of Adam and Emma as bride and groom, smiling outside the local church as guests showered them in rose petals.
    I skimmed past the next few photos that appeared to be more wedding shots, including holiday snaps that saw them posing outside various temples and extravagant buildings, a hint that these were memories of their honeymoon. I stopped at a picture of them both smiling while Emma held a pink and seemingly wriggly infant, swaddled in soft cloth. I could tell by the surroundings, as well as Emma’s obvious exhaustion, that the picture had been taken at the hospital. Proud parents showing off a new-born Ben. I smiled at the image and wondered what had gone so dismally wrong for them both.
    The next few pictures captured Ben as a toddler, growing fast and reaching various milestones: first smile, first laugh, first crawl, first step. The last photo saw him at around three years old. He had a small lunchbox in hand and the caption read: ‘Ben’s first day at nursery’.
    There were pages left blank in the album, enough space for many more photographs. I wondered if this was the last stage in their relationship. The last time someone had bothered to capture their lives together. The last time someone cared. As I absentmindedly flicked through the blank pages I saw a thin piece of paper flutter in between the folds. I took it out for inspection. The paper was light pink with small blue flowers dotted around the edges that reminded me of the forget-me-nots that grew near the river. It was obvious by its layout that this was a letter.
     
    Adam,
    I’m leaving. A simple sentence but an important one. More specifically I’m leaving you, this house and our life together. I have to. I don’t know any other way to say it. I hope you don’t think me insensitive but I know that your anger is inevitable. We’ve been through so much and I have stuck by you through the worst of it, but my mental health is calling out for a respite, for relief.
    My head aches with thoughts of you. Not just thoughts of the man you used to be but the couple we once were. Powerful, shatterproof… almost unstoppable. But the aching needs to cease and my mind needs to become peaceful again.
    With everything that has happened at school I’m sure you understand why I’m doing this, why I’m moving out. I can’t risk the stigma attached to you having an effect on our son. I’m doing this to avoid malicious whispers and distorted facts. I had a choice to make: stand by you or protect our son. I choose Ben. I’m sure you understand wh y.
    Although this is farewell it is not goodbye. Please stay in touch, for Ben’s sake. There is no need to punish him for your mistakes.
     
    Emma
     
    The letter was heartfelt but with a cold undertone. I sympathised with Adam, I knew what it was like suddenly to lose everything. The question in this case, though, was why? Why did Adam and Emma’s marriage break down? What was the subject Emma was so afraid of becoming gossip? What had happened at Adam’s school? I was even more confused than I had been before.
    I folded the letter neatly back into the album and carefully placed it back in the cupboard where I’d found it. I began to wonder why nobody had got in touch with Adam since I had taken over his life. Apart from Russ he had had no visitors, no phone calls, even the neighbours seemed uninterested in him.
    I remembered the last page I’d read in the diary and decided it was time for another journey into Adam’s past. I got changed into a pair of tartan pyjama bottoms and crawled beneath the soft sheets of the four-poster bed. I drew my knees to my chest and balanced the diary on