The Husband's Secret
Pamela Witherspoon's perfect marriage is a lie. After multiple miscarriages, her husband Kyle hasn't just become distant—he's become cold, almost repulsed by the idea of a child.
When their terrified housekeeper quits after cleaning the attic, she hints at a disturbing secret.
Pamela’s search uncovers a box of old tapes. The footage reveals a truth about Kyle so monstrous, she’s relieved she never bore his child. Now, she must decide: run, or confront the monster she married.
- Pamela - Kyle’s wife, 30
- Kyle - Pamela’s husband, 35
- Beatrice - Kyle’s mother
- Marissa - Pamela and Kyle’s adopted daughter, 6
- Chloe - Marissa’s nanny
- Sheila - Pamela’s best friend
- Cindy - Kyle’s mistress, 25
- Dr. Lawson - Family physician
- Kayla - Kyle’s daughter
- Pamela gets pregnant and Kyle is furious because he made it clear he never wants children.
- Kyle is having an affair with Cindy.
- Cindy tells Kyle she is pregnant and he says he’s happy and is leaving Pamela because she can’t get pregnant.
- Kyle tells Pamela that if she has the baby he will divorce her.
- Sheila threatens to tell Pamela about her affair with Kyle.
- Pamela steps on one of Marissa’s toys on the stairs and falls to the bottom and loses the baby.
- Kyle and Chloe have been having an affair for three years and she is now pregnant with his baby.
- Beatrice tells Kyle that she took care of his Sheila problem.
- Chloe puts in her resignation and Pamela realizes she had been sleeping with Kyle.
- Pamela’s stepfather raped her when she was in college.
- Pamela finds VHS tapes in the attic of women being given abortions and one video of Kyle killing Pamela’s stepfather after he raped her.
- Pamela finds out the truth from Beatrice: Kyle is a serial killer who is being treated with medication and by watching the videos of life being taken (abortions). Seeing the videos suppressed his urges to take a life.
- She also tells Pamela that Marissa is Sheila and Kyle’s biological daughter.
- Pamela’s first miscarriage was caused by Chloe and Beatrice giving her medication, and Chloe was also the one who put the Legos on the stairs to cause the most recent one.
- Pamela’s second miscarriage was happened because of a car accident while Kyle was driving.
- Beatrice tells Pamela that she hired her stepfather to rape her so that she would be broken and be a good match for her broken Kyle.
- Beatrice asks Pamela to help her cure Kyle and Pamela agrees because Beatrice says if Pamela leaves she won’t let her take Marissa.
- Two months later: In the middle of the night Kyle gets ill and Dr. Lawson says she thinks it is couvade syndrome from Pamela’s recent loss of the baby.
- Pamela finds out from Eleanor, Kyle’s aunt, that he killed a girl when he was nine by drowning her in a pool.
- Kyle keeps getting sicker so he goes to see Dr. Lawson.
- Dr. Lawson tells Kyle that she and Beatrice hid from him that he was born intersex.
- He is so sick because he is pregnant with his own child.
- Beatrice tells Kyle his father killed himself because he couldn’t stand being a father to a an intersex child.
- Three months later: Kyle is six months pregnant and despite many conflicting emotions, Kyle feels a special bond with the baby he named Kayla.
- Kyle has a cesarean but the baby has no heartbeat and everyone refuses to let Kyle see or hold Kayla.
- Kyle is wrecked with grief.
- Twenty-four hours later, Beatrice checks on Kyle and says she knows that he got many women pregnant on purpose so he could pay them to get abortions while he watched.
- Then she tells Kyle he was never pregnant or intersex, she used the ruse of him being pregnant to cure him of his desire to kill. The prenatal vitamins he had been taking were mimicking the symptoms of pregnancy.
- Beatrice had this plan in motion since Kyle was a child. The pills she always gave him were placebos.
- Seahorse syndrome is an experiment created by Beatrice and Dr. Lawson. It uses storytelling, hypnosis, and theatrics to create the illusion of pregnancy.
- Kyle was tattooed with a bloody seahorse on his palm while he was sedated.
- Beatrice did it all because she was willing to do anything to cure Kyle.
- Pamela is gone, Beatrice let her leave after the experiment was over.
- Epilogue: Three months later: Kyle visits Kayla’s grave, even though he knows she wasn’t real.
- At the cemetery he meets a man who echoes his story of a fake pregnancy and Seahorse syndrome.
- The man says his pregnancy ended one year ago and his doctor was Dr. Lawson.
- Kyle gets a phone call from someone saying to meet them in an hour if he wants to know the truth about Seahorse syndrome.
Wow. Just... wow. I finished this book a little while ago and my head is still spinning.
I read a lot of books with plot twists, but this one came out of nowhere. It was so unpredictable and genuinely unique compared to other thrillers I've read. I honestly did not see that coming, and it floored me.
The first 20% of the book was tricky to get into. The male main character is so bizarre, and his actions make no sense at first. But as the book continues and more secrets are revealed, you begin to understand why he is the way he is, and it was a crazy, interesting journey.
The ending was quite a cliffhanger! It's the kind of ending that makes you immediately want to dive into the next book in the series.
If you're looking for a fast-paced thriller that will keep you guessing and leave you reeling, I'd definitely recommend this one!
- Pamela - Alive - Left Kyle after she helped Beatrice ‘cure’ him
- Kyle - Alive - Ready to find the truth behind Seahorse Syndrome
- Beatrice - Alive - Not seen after she told Kyle about the Seahorse Syndrome experiment
- Chloe - Alive - Leaves the story after Pamela fires her
- Cindy - Alive - Not mentioned again after Kyle gave her an engagement ring
- Sheila - Unknown - Beatrice tells Kyle she ‘took care of the Sheila problem’ but never clarifies what that means
- Abortion
- Miscarriage
- Rape
Publisher: Independently published
ISBN: 9798338822227
Publication Date: September 16, 2024
Note: Details are for the original edition. Other formats, editions, and audiobook versions may be available.
