Tell Me Lies

ALSO BY TERESA DRISCOLL Recipes for Melissa Last Kiss Goodnight I Am Watching You The Friend The Promise I Will Make You Pay Her Perfect Family This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. Text copyright © 2023 by Teresa Driscoll All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher. Published by Thomas & Mercer, Seattle www.apub.com Amazon, the Amazon logo, and Thomas & Mercer are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates. ISBN-13: 9781662504983 eISBN: 9781662504990 Cover design by The Brewster Project Cover image: ©Creatopic / Shutterstock; ©Gallinago_media / Shutterstock; ©Evgrafova Svetlana / Shutterstock CONTENTS PROLOGUE DAY SEVEN – OWL COTTAGE PART ONE CHAPTER 1 DAY ONE – OWL COTTAGE CHAPTER 2 DAY ONE – OWL COTTAGE CHAPTER 3 DAY TWO – OWL COTTAGE CHAPTER 4 BEFORE CHAPTER 5 DAY TWO – OWL COTTAGE CHAPTER 6 DAY THREE – OWL COTTAGE CHAPTER 7 BEFORE CHAPTER 8 DAY THREE – OWL COTTAGE CHAPTER 9 DAY SEVEN – OWL COTTAGE CHAPTER 10 DAY FOUR CHAPTER 11 DAY FOUR – OWL COTTAGE CHAPTER 12 DAY FOUR CHAPTER 13 DAY FOUR – OWL COTTAGE CHAPTER 14 BEFORE CHAPTER 15 DAY FOUR – OWL COTTAGE CHAPTER 16 DAY FOUR – OWL COTTAGE CHAPTER 17 BEFORE CHAPTER 18 BEFORE CHAPTER 19 DAY FIVE CHAPTER 20 DAY FIVE CHAPTER 21 DAY FIVE CHAPTER 22 DAY FIVE CHAPTER 23 DAY FIVE – OWL COTTAGE PART TWO CHAPTER 24 BEFORE CHAPTER 25 DAY FIVE – OWL COTTAGE CHAPTER 26 BEFORE CHAPTER 27 DAY FIVE – OWL COTTAGE CHAPTER 28 DAY FIVE – OWL COTTAGE CHAPTER 29 BEFORE CHAPTER 30 DAY SIX CHAPTER 31 DAY SIX – OWL COTTAGE CHAPTER 32 DAY SIX CHAPTER 33 DAY SIX – OWL COTTAGE CHAPTER 34 BEFORE CHAPTER 35 BEFORE CHAPTER 36 DAY SIX CHAPTER 37 BEFORE CHAPTER 38 DAY SIX – OWL COTTAGE CHAPTER 39 DAY SIX CHAPTER 40 DAY SIX – OWL COTTAGE CHAPTER 41 DAY SIX CHAPTER 42 DAY SIX – OWL COTTAGE CHAPTER 43 DAY SEVEN CHAPTER 44 DAY SEVEN – OWL COTTAGE CHAPTER 45 BEFORE CHAPTER 46 DAY SEVEN CHAPTER 47 DAY SEVEN CHAPTER 48 DAY SEVEN CHAPTER 49 BEFORE CHAPTER 50 DAY SEVEN CHAPTER 51 DAY SEVEN CHAPTER 52 DAY SEVEN CHAPTER 53 DAY SEVEN CHAPTER 54 DAY SEVEN – OWL COTTAGE CHAPTER 55 BEFORE CHAPTER 56 DAY 7 – OWL COTTAGE CHAPTER 57 DAY SEVEN CHAPTER 58 DAY SEVEN – OWL COTTAGE CHAPTER 59 DAY SEVEN CHAPTER 60 DAY SEVEN – OWL COTTAGE CHAPTER 61 BEFORE CHAPTER 62 DAY SEVEN – OWL COTTAGE CHAPTER 63 DAY SEVEN – OWL COTTAGE CHAPTER 64 DAY EIGHT CHAPTER 65 DAY NINE EPILOGUE AUTHOR’S NOTE PREVIEW: HER PERFECT FAMILY PROLOGUE CHAPTER 1 ABOUT THE AUTHOR Follow the Author on Amazon PROLOGUE DAY SEVEN – OWL COTTAGE Hannah At first we loved the owls . . . No – wait. Maybe I’m just kidding myself. Maybe none of this has been how I imagined. Maybe it was only ever me who loved the owls. I look down at the knife in my hand. There’s blood on the blade and blood on my fingers too. I can see that I’m trembling yet cannot feel the movement – this strange disconnect between my mind and my flesh. I do know that I feel faint – terrified I’ll pass out and that Lily will come back and see. All. This. I close my eyes and try to breathe more deeply. I long to hear the owls to take my mind somewhere safer. An anchor. Something to keep me conscious. I keep very still. Listen. But there’s nothing. Do not faint . . . They’re why I booked this place. Owl Cottage. I try again to picture our first night. And breathe . . . The fabrics. The hooting. I open my eyes briefly to check the Rayburn stove – deep, rich, shiny blue with the tea towels still hung over the chrome rail. Owls printed on the cotton. Owls swooping across the folds of the curtains too. Do not faint . . . That first evening I sat just a few feet from here – out there on the front step. I can’t believe that was me – the slate cold to my legs, even through my jeans – sipping wine and listening to them hooting their hello. That other me who, for the first time in months, felt the call of those owls was like some tiny signal of hope. I’ve loved them since I was a child – six, maybe seven. That first sight of a tawny at a country fair. Right up close. I held my breath. Didn’t blink. Do you want to feel the feathers? My mother nudged me to answer but I pretended not to hear – just me and the bird. Transfixed. The owl turned its head as the handler brought it closer. The woman took my hand gently and pushed it deep into the bird’s plumage, just beneath its wings. I expected to hit flesh but instead my fingers plunged deep, deep into nothing but softness. Like feeling the inside of a cloud . . . So this was all my idea. Owl Cottage. I fell in love with the place online and then again that first night, rushing around to show Lily each of the little touches. Aren’t they wonderful, Lily? Look. Owls everywhere. I think their eyes look scary, Mummy. I don’t like them. No, no. They’re not scary, sweetie. They’re wise and beautiful and incredible. You’ll see. How wrong can a mother be? Lily never came to love the owls. And I should never have brought us here. I look down once more at