SPOILERS!!!
We discover more about Nikki and her secrets. The story takes us back to when Nikki and her best friend, Melissa, were close. Then Melissa and Nikki’s brother started dating, and they eventually moved in together and married. After that Melissa changed and told Nikki that now that she and Lee were married, she couldn’t keep her secrets any longer because she owed her husband loyalty.
Nikki felt lonely, so she posted an advertisement on a dating site, saying that she wanted to meet someone who she could exchange secrets with. Then someone who called himself King Edward contacted her. From the first moment Nikki felt alive as they exchanged emails, and she couldn’t wait to leave her family in the dining room and turn on the computer. Their exchange then turned romantic and sexual, and Nikki wanted to meet. However, Edward was reluctant, and Nikki realised that he had never shared anything personal whereas he knew everything about her. When Nikki pressed, he said that he had been cagey about his identify because he was quite well-known. Then he said that his name was Damon Blundy, the man who was murdered recently.
After that, Nikki followed his column, leaving comments about it online. When she discovered that Blundy had moved to Spilling, she moved as well, telling her husband that a smaller town would be better for them all. Nikki continued insisting that they should meet. Then he said that they could spend a week together in a hotel in London, and Nikki promptly agreed, and she told Adam that she would be spending a week on a holiday with friends. When she was in the hotel, King Edward didn’t turn up, but kept emailing her. Nikki begged him, saying that at least he could stay in the room next door, and just his presence would be enough. Then he said that he would come, but she needed to leave the key for him in reception and get a blindfold and wait for him. So Nikki obeyed and wrapped a scarf around her eyes. Some time later she heard the door opening, and she was overcome by the caresses he gave her. Yet, suddenly he cut his ministrations short, and he left. When in an email Nikki demanded why he had gone, King Edward said that the man who had been with her wasn’t his, but a stranger.
What Nikki discovered later was that she had been lied to and the man wasn’t Damon Blundy. I imagine that after that night in the hotel, she stopped all contact with King Edward. Then once again she contacted a new man, Gavin, and now after the last conversations she is convinced that Gavin and King Edward are the same.
Nikki is also worried because she is being followed by a man. She had noticed the man at the school gate, so she thought that he was a dad. Then when she drives to London to see Melissa, she notices him again. So she calls the school’s principal, Kate, and she discovers that the man following her is not a father, but someone that could have been following her for a long time. I wonder who he is and why.
What we also discover is that Nikki’s family is weird, and no wonder Nikki is peculiar. When she goes to see Melissa about the lie she told the police about the wing mirror in her car, Melissa says that she won’t lie for her. After that, Melissa goes to the police to accuse Nikki, and she also tells Lee, her husband, everything. Lee tells his parents, and Nikki’s mother phones to say that she is a disgrace and she intends to tell Adam that she cheated on him with Damon. So Nikki says that she already told him, which is not true, but when Adam comes home next, she confesses that she has been unfaithful to him. It is nothing to do with him because she would have done the same if she were married to someone else.
Nikki is also convinced that the reason why Damon Blundy was murdered is her even though she has never met him for real.
My Reading Journal 