Because She Loves Me (37 page)

I was about to go, afraid that the tears would come in public, when I heard the door of the coffee shop tinkle. I glanced up as it was pushed open, cold air entering the shop, the temporary blast of traffic noise drowning out the music inside.

The woman in the doorway had long red hair, lightly tanned skin and large, intelligent eyes. She was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. I caught my breath.

She walked quickly over to my table without looking at me. Still standing, she pointed at my coffee mug.

‘I wouldn’t drink that if I were you,’ she said. ‘It tastes like cow’s piss.’

Once again, just like before, I groped for something clever to say. Once again, just like before, I failed.

She smiled at me.

I stuck my hand out and, still smiling, she took it. Her palm was warm and dry.

‘Nice to meet you,’ she said, sitting down opposite me, her chair scraping on the tiled floor. ‘I’m Charlotte.’

Letter From the Author

Dear Reader,

Thank you for reading
Because She Loves Me
. Of course, I hope you enjoyed it. I’d love to hear your thoughts and can be contacted in a variety of ways:

Email me at
[email protected]
;

Find me on
Facebook.com/vossandedwards
;

Follow me on Twitter with the username
@mredwards
.

I love hearing from readers and always respond.

I’m going to talk a little about the inspiration behind this book. Please be aware – this contains some spoilers so please only read this if you’ve already finished the novel. If you haven’t, don’t even peek at the following paragraphs!

Because She Loves Me
was inspired by a number of events that happened to me.

Firstly, like Andrew, I suffered a detached retina a couple of years ago, and spent two weeks sleeping upright with a gas bubble in my eye, imbibing a cocktail of drugs and wondering if I would ever recover my sight. It was scary. Fortunately, thanks to the surgeons at my local hospital (New Cross in Wolverhampton), I recovered. But the experience, including the horrible follow-up laser surgery, has made me slightly obsessed with my eyes.

So when I thought about what was most physically terrifying to me, and what I could inflict upon my character, the answer was obvious.

Secondly, there has been my experience of jealousy. When I was at university I had a girlfriend who made my life hell because a green-eyed monster lived inside her. She accused me of fancying every woman I met; she got angry if an attractive woman appeared on TV; she demanded that I break off contact with my female friends. Going into a lecture, I squirmed and sweated if a good-looking girl sat next to me, in case my girlfriend found out. Being a nineteen-year-old idiot, I let her get away with it for quite a long time before the relationship burned itself out.

Years later, I lived with a woman who wasn’t jealous but who told me, after I broke my leg and was trapped in our upstairs flat for weeks (yes, just like Andrew), that this situation made her happy. ‘I like knowing exactly where you are all the time,’ she said. ‘And what you’re doing.’

And I have experienced jealousy myself. I know what it feels like when that darkness takes over and devours good sense, filling you up with paranoid rage and fear. It’s the most irrational and nasty emotion and I’m happy to say it hasn’t afflicted me for a long time.

All of this combined to make me want to write a book about sexual jealousy and how destructive it can be. And, of course, that original idea grew into something much darker . . .

This book is a kind-of companion piece to
The Magpies,
in which I focused on neighbours from hell, exploring the idea that the real monsters are not vampires or demons but the people who live next door. In
Because She Loves Me
, I wanted the terror to be even closer to home. But this time, with a twist. The main challenge of this book was making everything ambiguous, so there are at least two possible explanations for everything that happens. I hope you didn’t guess it but if you did, let’s hope I can get you next time!

Finally, anyone who has read
The Magpies
will have noticed that Lucy from that book gets a few mentions in this one. Lucy is hated by many, but to a large degree she has lived in the shadows of my books, never fully revealing herself. I am sure she will surface in future work – and maybe we’ll get to see a lot more of her. I think she still has a lot of havoc to wreak . . .

Thanks again for reading.

Best wishes

Mark Edwards

Acknowledgements

Thanks to my very cool and beautiful wife, Sara, for reading this book first and helping me make it a lot better, including coming up with the lost property idea.

To Michele Knight and Anne Coates for helping out with my questions about aura reading.

To everyone at Amazon Publishing in the UK, including Emilie, Sana, and Victoria – I couldn’t wish to work with a more enthusiastic and professional group of book lovers.

Thanks to David Downing, my editor, who is not only an excellent editor but a great guy and a good laugh.

To my agent, Sam Copeland, for dealing with all the boring stuff for me and being awesome at karaoke.

Finally, huge and heartfelt thanks to everyone on
Facebook.com/vossandedwards
– you’re the most fun and all-around-awesome group of readers in the world.

About the Author

Photo © Mark Earthy

Mark writes psychological thrillers. He loves stories in which scary things happen to ordinary people and is inspired by writers such as Stephen King, Ira Levin,
Ruth Rendell, Ian McEwan, Val McDermid
and Donna Tartt.

Mark is now a full-time writer.
Before that, he once picked broad beans, answered complaint calls for a rail company, taught English in Japan and worked as a marketing director.

Mark co-published a series of crime novels with Louise Voss.
The Magpies
was his first solo venture and topped the UK
Kindle
charts for three months when it was first released. Since its
success
, the novel has been re-edited and published by Thomas &
Mercer
on 26th November 2013.
Because She Loves Me
is his
second
spine-tingl
ing thriller.

He lives in England with his wife, their three children and a ginger cat.

He can be contacted at:
[email protected]

Twitter:
@mredwards

Facebook:
www.facebook.com/vossandedwards

Download a Free Story by Mark Edwards

In ‘Guardian Angel’, a young woman’s obsession with missed
connection newspaper ads leads to a terrifying encounter with a stalker . . .

To get your copy now, visit
vossandedwards.com/free-short-story