Her One Mistake(69)
“I never meant to hurt anyone.”
Charlotte’s grip tightened around her phone. “What have you done?” she asked slowly.
“I had to do it and I don’t expect you to forgive me, but she’s gone, Charlotte. I’m so scared. I don’t know where she is.” Harriet let out another sob.
“Slow down. Just tell me what’s going on.”
“I had to get Alice away from him, Charlotte, I had to. But it’s gone wrong and now I don’t know where she is.”
“Harriet, what exactly are you saying?” Charlotte’s fingers were beginning to feel numb she was clenching the phone so hard.
“I had to get Alice away.”
“No.” Charlotte stared at her spiral staircase. “No,” she breathed again, shaking her head. “Did you . . . Did you have something to do with it?” With her spare hand she reached out for the hallway table, which shuddered under the strength of her hold.
“I had to,” she begged through her sobs. “I had to get away from him. But it was never meant to be like this.”
“No. This doesn’t make sense. You’re lying to me, Harriet.”
“I’m not lying and I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, but I don’t know where Alice is anymore. I did, but she isn’t here and I can’t find her—” Harriet’s voice trailed off.
“But you made me believe she was abducted. You made me think a stranger had grabbed her.”
“I’m sorry,” Harriet cried, but Charlotte wasn’t listening.
“You made me think it was all my fault, that I wasn’t looking after her, but all along you did this?” she spat. “I don’t believe it, I can’t believe it.”
“I know,” Harriet said. “I know everything you’re saying is true and I’m so sorry, but right now that’s not important.”
“Not important?” Charlotte let out a shallow laugh. “Are you kidding me? Of course it’s important. I was accused of not watching her, Harriet,” she cried. “Jesus, how could you do that? What kind of mother would kidnap her own child?”
“I had no choice,” Harriet pleaded.
“Of course you had a choice!” she screamed. “No one abducts their own child.”
Harriet was silent.
“You must have known how guilty I’d feel,” Charlotte went on. “Surely you’ve seen what everyone’s been saying about me; you can’t ignore it. How could you have done this?”
“Charlotte, please, I’ll explain it all,” Harriet cried, “but I really need you—”
“Tell me what happened,” Charlotte said, cutting her off. Her body was shaking with rage. “Where is she?”
“I don’t know,” Harriet sobbed. “That’s just it, she’s supposed to be here but she isn’t.”
Charlotte pressed the heel of her hand against her forehead. She couldn’t understand what Harriet was telling her. It was unthinkable that her friend had done this.
“He was supposed to have answered my calls but he didn’t,” Harriet continued. “That was two days ago, and now I’m here and there’s no sign of either of them.”
“He? Who is he? The person who took her? I’m assuming you weren’t at the fair.” She tried to force herself into a state of calm so she could piece together the story that had so many holes in it.
Silence.
“Who took her?” she asked again, her voice rising.
“My father.”
“But he’s dead,” Charlotte said, incredulous.
“No,” Harriet said quietly. “He never was.”
“What?” Charlotte choked the word out. “But you told me he died. Right at the beginning. In fact, the first time we met you told me your dad was dead and I felt awful because I’d been going on about mine walking out.”
“I always thought of him as dead because that’s what my mum used to tell everyone, but actually he left us. I hadn’t seen him in over thirty years, but he turned up one day last year.”
“This is crazy,” Charlotte cried. “Why would you lie to me about something like that? Do you have any idea how this sounds?” Charlotte was trembling again and she had to sit down. Her balled fist lay gripped tightly in her lap. “This is—” she broke off. “Has anything you’ve ever told me been true, Harriet? Do you even know what that word means?” she shouted.
“Please,” Harriet pleaded. “I know how it all sounds, I do.”
“And he’s taken Alice?” Charlotte went on. “I can’t even believe this.”
“I know it doesn’t make any sense.”
“You don’t trust anyone with Alice,” Charlotte said. “Why did you trust him? Why did you do this, Harriet?”
“We weren’t safe,” Harriet cried. “I had to get us away from Brian and he made it impossible for me to leave him.”
“Brian? What do you mean, you weren’t safe?”
“I was desperate, Charlotte. He tricked everyone. He would have taken Alice from me.”
Charlotte recalled the first time Brian had turned up on her doorstep when he was worried about Harriet’s state of mind and Alice’s safety. She’d disregarded it completely. But what if Brian had been right? Just because Harriet didn’t behave how Charlotte supposed someone would with postnatal depression, it didn’t mean she wasn’t capable of doing something stupid.