Tom and Anna’s marriage, begun as an affair

Tom and Anna’s marriage, begun as an affair, turns a secret liaison into the public arrangement of husband, wife, and daughter—but never makes deception a thing of the past. Their relationship begins in an empty house at 34 Cranham Street, where Tom’s charm and Anna’s excitement make betrayal feel, to her, like proof of irresistible intimacy. Later, his affair with Megan Hipwell and his violence toward Rachel Watson force Anna to see that the same lying on which their early relationship depended can also leave her unsafe.

The Affair at 34 Cranham Street

Anna was selling a house at 34 Cranham Street when a prospective buyer’s mortgage fell through after a lender’s survey. With the house empty and the sellers already moved on, she had to let in an independent surveyor. She recognized at the door that an affair with him was about to begin: they had sex in the kitchen, against the counter. Tom’s invitation to abandon reason—“Don’t expect me to be sane, Anna. Not with you.”—became a phrase that made their impulsive behavior feel like a shared condition rather than a choice.

The encounter became a repeated secret. Anna remembers hurrying up the front steps, hoping the neighbors would not see her let herself in, getting ready in the bathroom, and putting on perfume and special underwear. A text from Tom would announce his arrival; they would spend an hour or two in the upstairs bedroom. The empty house was more than a convenient setting: it gave their relationship a private stage on which the ordinary obligations of marriage could be kept out of view.

Anna later admits that she enjoyed the affair and did not feel guilty, although she pretended otherwise to married friends. She told them she felt for Tom’s wife and had never meant for the affair to happen. In reality, Rachel did not feel real to her, and Anna took pleasure in the thrill of being the woman Tom would betray his wife to see. Her account makes clear that this was not simply a romance she reluctantly found herself in; at the time, secrecy and the sense of being chosen were part of its appeal.

Marriage Built on Concealment

The affair’s secrecy depended on Tom’s ability to invent credible excuses. He told Rachel he was meeting a client or friends for a beer, and brushed aside Anna’s question about whether Rachel might check up on him. He described himself as “a good liar.” Anna saw that performance extend beyond the affair: Tom could persuade hotel check-in staff that they were honeymooners and talk his way out of extra hours at work by claiming a family emergency. His skill at lying was not confined to protecting one relationship; it was a habit that made his words difficult to test.

Anna’s memories of the affair also reveal how Tom used Rachel’s drinking to discredit her. He told Anna that even if Rachel checked on him, she would not remember what had happened the next day. Anna says that this was when she began to understand how bad things were for him. The explanation helped make the affair seem like an escape from a difficult marriage, even as Tom used Rachel’s vulnerability as cover. Later, when Anna passes 34 Cranham Street, the bodily excitement of remembering their meetings gives way to the memory of Tom’s conspiratorial laughter and the realization that his lies came naturally to him.

The relationship’s transformation into marriage does not remove the earlier betrayal from its history. By the time of the living-room confrontation on 18 August 2013, Tom presents himself as an adoring father and dutiful husband, with Evie on his lap and Anna beside him. Across from them sits Rachel, Tom’s ex-wife, in the leather armchair that Tom and Anna bought just after their own marriage. Anna remembers the excitement of its delivery and the safety and comfort she once associated with it. The scene sets that remembered domestic security against the exposed history of the affair and the danger now gathering in the same family circle.

Megan and the Return of the Pattern

Tom’s later affair with Megan repeats the structure of his relationship with Anna: a married man creates a hidden sexual life and relies on deception to keep it separate from domestic responsibilities. During the confrontation, he says that he and Megan first met at her place, but that her fear of Scott finding out led them to meet at The Swan. He then turns to Anna and invokes their own beginnings at the Cranham Street house, calling them “the good old days” and winking at Rachel. His recollection treats the affair as shared nostalgia, but in the room it also makes Anna’s private history part of his account of his betrayal of Megan.

Rachel, in turn, confronts Anna with what Tom’s behavior means for their own past. She says that Tom is a good liar and recalls that Anna had been unaware for months while Rachel and Tom were meeting at the house on Cranham Street. Anna responds by asking what Megan has to do with it; Rachel says that Tom and Megan had an affair. Anna recognizes that this is the first time she has said aloud that Tom cheated on her. The disclosure changes the meaning of her old position: the woman who once took pleasure in being the secret partner has also been deceived by Tom.

Family Life and the Limits of Safety

Evie gives Tom and Anna’s marriage a visible family shape, but the book does not present that domestic picture as proof of trust. Anna’s love for her daughter is intense, and after Megan’s disappearance she resolves not to leave Evie with anyone else again, even a qualified or vouched-for childminder. At the confrontation, Tom shifts Evie in his arms and uses her presence as he speaks to Anna, blaming her exhaustion and attention to the baby for his involvement with Megan. He says Megan was available. Anna grips the edge of the table, rigid and looking down, while Tom moves between accusation and affectionate play with his daughter.

After Tom has hurt Rachel, Anna briefly imagines a future in which she, Tom, and Evie might still be safe together. Looking at her sleeping daughter, however, she recognizes that this is a fantasy. She fears that she will never be safe with Tom now that she knows what he is capable of, and wonders who might be the next Megan—or another Anna, or another version of herself. The thought recasts the marriage’s history of affairs as a recurring danger rather than a closed chapter.

Tom tells Anna that Rachel has suffered only “a little knock,” adding that he will not be able to call this one an accident. Anna and Tom wait together and drink beer. He apologizes for Megan and for the affair, kisses Anna, and promises they will move away and that everything will be all right. Anna says she could forgive him, given time, and Tom believes her—or she thinks he does. Her answer offers the appearance of reconciliation, but her recognition that she will never be safe leaves the marriage’s future promise sharply compromised.