Silent Child(78)

“We should call the police,” I said.

He nodded. “And we need to figure out what to do next. It’s lunchtime now. He’ll still be at the school, right?”

“Yes.”

“We’ll go to your place and get some stuff. You can stay with us in the B&B.”

I shook my head. As much as I hated to do this to my best friend, it was now necessary. “I want to go to Josie’s. Your mum is too much of a wildcard, Rob. She makes decisions without consulting me and she’s too stubborn. She thinks she knows what’s best for Aiden all the time and I don’t want to be fighting with her. Besides, I’m due to give birth in days and your parents haven’t got the room.” The thought of my impending arrival weighed so heavy on my shoulders that I let them sag. I rested my head against the window of Rob’s truck. “What am I going to do?”

His warm fingers caressed my hand before squeezing it tight. The way my hand fit right into his injected a little warmth into my bones. It wasn’t much, but it was something.

“I’m not going anywhere this time, Emma. I’m going to help you.”

Yes, but for how long? I thought. “You’ve said that before.”

Rob sighed. “I mean it this time.”

“How do I know you’re not lying to me again? You lied last time, didn’t you? You told me, in the weeks after the flood, that you wouldn’t leave my side, that no matter what we would be together. You lied.”

“It’s not a lie if you believe it to be true. I thought we would be.”

I wiped a tear from my eye. “Sorry. I… I’m just upset. We should go.”

Rob started the engine and we finally left the storage yard. When we arrived at Jake’s house—not my home, not anymore—Rob phoned the police and left an anonymous tip that Jake Price had stashed drugs in a storage garage outside Bishoptown. I forced myself into the shower and let the hot water wash away the smell of mould from the wet garage walls. Then I dressed, collected my suitcase, and repacked some of the things I’d packed from the night before, along with more of Aiden’s clothes. Rob loaded his truck with as much baby paraphernalia as he could, while I tried to get in touch with Josie.

“Still no answer?” Rob wiped rain and sweat away from his forehead with the back of his hand and straightened up. His face was red from the effort of carrying heavy suitcases into the truck.

I shook my head. “I thought she’d still be off work. She’s taken some time off to deal with Hugh’s disappearance.”

“Do you want to stay with my mum and dad?”

I chewed on my bottom lip. “No. I have a key for Josie’s. We’ll go pick up Aiden and then I’ll call Josie when I get there. I’ve left a voicemail for now.”

“Are you sure she’s going to be okay with this?”

A sudden cramp rippled through my abdomen and I creased over.

“Emma?”

I straightened up as the pain dissipated. “I’m okay. Josie will be fine. I’d do the same for her given the circumstances, so she won’t have a problem with it.”

Rob nodded to indicate it was good enough for him, but he frowned at the same time. “Are you sure you’re all right?”

“Just the baby kicking.”

But I was quivering down to my toes. The pain had felt a lot worse than the baby kicking and I had no idea whether Josie would take me in. All I knew was that I didn’t want to be around Rob’s parents. Not after the trick his mum pulled that upset Aiden, and not after his dad had been questioned by the police. No. I needed to be somewhere that would be safe for Aiden. Though things were a mess with Hugh gone, I knew that Josie’s was the best option. It sounded as though Hugh wasn’t coming back, at least not for the foreseeable future, so I got to live with Josie alone for a week or two until I’d had the baby and could look for a flat in the village.

I couldn’t believe I was even at this junction in my life, but that’s what happens when all the control is taken from you. The worst part was how I’d let Jake take even more control from me. I’d let him persuade me to sell my parents’ house. I’d put my money into a joint account. I’d taken a job where I worked with him. I’d done all those stupid things because I loved and trusted him. Though I regretted it as I climbed back into Rob’s truck and watched the rain blur Bishoptown into an abstract painting, there came a time when I stopped regretting my decisions. No one should regret loving and trusting another human being. Yes, sometimes we direct our love and trust to the wrong person, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have done it at all. Hearts should be protected, but they shouldn’t be forced to close. The withered piece of coal hidden deep in my chest had once been full of love. But as we picked up Aiden and drove on to Josie’s house, it was full of nothing but hate.





39


It was late afternoon by the time we reached Josie’s house. The sun wouldn’t set for hours, but dark clouds had descended, preventing sunlight from penetrating the murky sky. I opened the door to the truck and climbed out, holding my protruding pregnant belly. The rain fell over us in one great torrent, and instantly I was transported back to that fateful day ten years ago when I lost my son. But this time, he was by my side. I held onto his arm with one hand and readjusted the hood on his raincoat with the other. Beneath the hood he was there, quiet as a church mouse, pale as a raw potato, and lifeless as a mannequin. My son. The boy whose only reactions since coming back to me had been destructive and violent. I wrapped a protective arm around his shoulder and walked him up to the house.