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    Midlife Crisis
    Midlife Crisis
    Midlife Crisis
    Ebook83 pages59 minutes

    Midlife Crisis

    By Belinda Bennett

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Horrid hormones are playing havoc with Sammy-Jo's life. Middle-age is her worst nightmare come true, and she can’t cope.

    Trapped in a loveless marriage, her life spirals out of control as she struggles with the effects of the menopause. Worn down by sleepless nights, relentless hot flashes and anxiety, she is consumed with guilt after a shopping trip lands her on the wrong side of the law.

    With separate beds and almost separate lives, the Jacobs are on a collision course beyond anyone’s control.

    Early one morning, a random decision to hop on a bus brings her face-to-face with an old friend. As trouble at home takes a dangerous turn for the worse, she’s happy to have a shoulder to cry on.

    But, as renegade hormones play tricks on her mind as well as her body, is everything exactly how it seems?

    Written by a woman whose first hot flash took her by such surprise an ambulance was called. You've got to hate hormones, haven't you?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBelinda Bennett
    Release dateMar 4, 2019
    ISBN9780463598238
    Midlife Crisis
    Author

    Belinda Bennett

    Belinda Bennett started writing fiction at primary school. Always passionate about creative writing, her talents were diverted to journalism in her late teens after both her parents died.She was diagnosed with HER2+ inflammatory breast cancer on January 23, 2020. Currently undergoing chemotherapy and targeted therapies, she is hoping to undergo surgery later this year.A fierce supporter of the underdog, Belinda supports causes that help the homeless and those whose lives have been blighted by addiction.Belinda is a former journalist, newspaper editor and freelance copywriter. She lives by the sea on the Jurassic Coast in Dorset, England.

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      Book preview

      Midlife Crisis - Belinda Bennett

      Belinda Bennett

      Copyright © Belinda Bennett

      Published by BB Digital, March 2019

      Twitter @goldengirlnot

      All rights reserved by the author. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written consent of the Publisher, except where permitted by law.

      Midlife Crisis is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and events either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or events is entirely coincidental/fictitious.

      Dedication

      For women everywhere

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      Chapter One

      Chapter Two

      Chapter Three

      Chapter Four

      Chapter Five

      Chapter Six

      Chapter Seven

      Chapter Eight

      Chapter Nine

      Chapter Ten

      Chapter Eleven

      Chapter Twelve

      Chapter Thirteen

      Chapter Fourteen

      About The Author

      More Books by Belinda Bennett

      Chapter One

      THE constant drone of heavy traffic drifted into the background as a pretty scarf, dotted with pastel shades reminiscent of spring, caught her eye. Delicately draped around a mannequin’s smooth, plastic neck, it perfectly complemented the flared, off-white linen dress that loosely hugged the rigid hourglass shape below. In the blink of an eye, it lured her off the busy pavement and into a welcome blast of warm air.

      ‘Can I help you?’ a shop assistant young enough to be her daughter asked.

      Sammy-Jo shook her head. ‘I’m just looking.’

      The flat, negative tone of her reply was enough to tell the heavily made-up assistant that this was ‘just a browser’; someone very unlikely to present themselves at the till. Stepping out from behind a counter the second the potential customer walked through an open door was probably a mistake. She should have waited.

      ‘Suit yourself,’ she muttered, retreating to blend into the background of the small but well-stocked boutique. ‘Just shout, if you need any help.’

      The girl’s attempt to deliver some semblance of customer service was lost on Sammy-Jo. She didn’t hear a word of it. Making a beeline for a rack of scarves to the left of her, she was hell-bent on finding one just like she’d seen in the shop window.

      Hadn’t she seen the very same scarf before? It looks familiar, she was thinking. It could have been in the glossy magazine she’d half-heartedly flicked through in the waiting room at the doctor’s. Or it could have been the one Susan had shown her a few weeks before.

      ‘Don’t you think it’s just gorgeous?’ she’d gushed, stuffing it back into a black, high-gloss carrier bag emblazoned with gold writing before Sammy-Jo had finished admiring it. ‘I thought it would be perfect for the cruise Andrew’s booked as our third anniversary treat. It will set off the tan I am bound to get as we travel around the Med.’

      The thought of sailing off into the sunset and leaving the craggy greyness of Southampton Docks in the distance filled Sammy-Jo with envy. The farthest place she’d been with Tom was the Scottish borders. He’d only ventured that far away from his beloved accountancy firm for a game of golf. It still amazed her that he thought to include his wife in the corporate trip. Perhaps it was because Susan, who is married to Andrew, Tom’s business partner, insisted the ‘girls’ weren’t left at home.

      ‘Why should we girls miss out?’ Sammy-Jo recalled her whining over dinner.

      At the time, Sammy-Jo had been tempted to point out that Andrew would never chance leaving her home alone. Susan was always going to be included on that trip because her husband didn't trust her. He'd never trust her. How she had managed to bite her tongue defied her to this day.

      His second wife and almost 18 years his junior, Susan was the trophy wife someone like Sammy-Jo was conditioned to despise. A vain, cold-hearted gold digger, that’s what Susan was. Sammy-Jo was convinced of it. Any half-decent, ‘normal’ person could see that a mile off, she thought. Susan’s intentions were as mean as her thin lips before they succumbed to a cosmetic surgeon’s needle. Now they were as bloated as her credit card bill.

      Sammy-Jo had a sense of the humiliation and gut-wrenching pain that Velda, Andrew's first wife, must have felt when she realised she was being cast aside in favour of a younger model. Susan had set her sights on Andrew the day she'd arrived at his office as a temp. She was only supposed to be there for two weeks but never left. Well, not until she'd got what she wanted.

      The moment there was a blip at home, she made her move. Andrew was weak. Velda was history in a matter of months. Thirty years of

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