Her One Mistake(77)

I shook my head. “No,” I said quietly, “they shouldn’t’ve.” I had no idea what my dad thought he was doing. All I knew was this morning she was safe and all I could hope was that he was looking after her like I believed he would.

“So what happens now?” Brian said. “We go home, one big happy family?”

“Yes,” I told him. “We can do that.” Whether he was serious or not, I’d take the bait. “We can, Brian,” I pleaded. “We need to talk about what we do next.”

I’d do whatever I had to to make sure Alice was never out of my sight again. I’d stay with Brian forever if it meant he wouldn’t tell the police.

He laughed softly. “You really think I believe that? That you’ll happily walk back into our life together? Jesus, Harriet. How stupid do you think I am?” His dead eyes bored into my head, where he could always see everything that was going on. And then he turned on his heel and began down the path again.

Finally we reached the bottom. Brian strode off toward the beach. The tide had come in and was now covering nearly all of the sand. I wondered if it would come in farther still. I’d been to coves like this and watched the sea wash straight over the rocks, hitting the walls beyond when it was stormy.

To our left the rocks stretched ahead of us, but as soon as we started walking we could both see the jetty and a little fishing boat that must have been there all along.

“Is that it?” I cried. My legs felt like jelly as Brian grabbed me again and began pulling me toward the rocks. “Brian, is that the boat?” I believed it must be, the way he hauled me toward it. I strained to see past him and could just make out the outline of a figure in the boat.

As desperate as I was to see Alice, it was still a struggle to keep up with him, but then the nearer we got the more visible the figure became, until I was certain it was my father.

“Dad!” I cried, climbing over the rocks to get to him. He looked up as he stepped out of the little boat that bobbed on the water, glancing at Brian and then turning to me, his face dropping in shock.

“Where’s Alice?” I shouted when I couldn’t see her. Brian’s grip squeezed tighter. “Where is she?” Panic coursed through me, my legs buckling with every step. We had reached my dad now and I could clearly see Alice wasn’t in the boat.

“Alice is fine.” My dad stepped forward as we reached him. “Harriet,” he pleaded, “she’s fine.”

“Tell me where she is!” I shouted again. “She’s not with you, so what have you done to her?”

“I haven’t done anything.” His eyes sought Brian out and then flicked nervously back to me.

“Dad, just tell me where she is,” I said urgently. The need to hold her in my arms and know she was safe had become unbearable.

“He’s been here all night,” my dad said to me, his eyes wide with fear. I felt Brian tense at my side. So my father had seen him. He’d have known Brian was watching the house. No wonder he looked so frightened; he must have been worrying all night about what Brian would do. But that could all wait. Right now I needed to see my daughter.

“Alice!” I called out, and when my dad turned to his left, I followed his gaze toward a bundle of blankets on the rocks. I stepped forward but Brian yanked me back.

“She’s sleeping,” my dad said as the bundle stirred. “I took her out for the day because I didn’t know what else to do. It’s been a long day and she fell asleep on our way back, so I laid her out there while I finished up on the boat.”

“Alice!” I shouted again, trying to pull away from Brian whose hold remained resolutely locked on my arm. I turned to tell him to get off me, but he wasn’t even looking in our daughter’s direction. He was glaring at my father.

“Mummy!” a voice called from behind me and when I looked back, Alice was awake and pushing herself to her feet.

“Alice, oh my baby.” I held out my arm as far as I could reach, but Brian was sidestepping around me until he was between me and my dad and my little girl, who was now carefully stepping over the rocks toward us.

“Let me get to her,” I cried, but Brian wouldn’t budge.

I watched her find her footing in bright pink wellington boots that I’d never seen before. In my desperation to touch her and hold her, I tried to wrench away from Brian but lost my footing and stumbled.

“Mummy!” she called out again, panic rising in her voice.

“Mummy’s okay.” I was, but the searing pain in my wrist wasn’t letting up.

I needed to hug her, tell her I would never let her go again, but I also knew there was no way Brian would let me get to her right now, and I had to go carefully. He held too many cards in his hand and could still make sure I lost everything.

Beside him, my dad glanced nervously between me and Brian. He was rooted rigidly to the spot. Brian began edging toward him, still never looking at Alice.

“Dad, you should go,” I said.

But my father didn’t move. “He was here all night,” he said again. “Just watching.” He sucked in a breath and held it tightly.

“Dad,” I urged. “Please just go.” He was never going to win a fight with Brian, who turned and stared coldly at my dad.

When Dad eventually took a step back, he looked at me and said, “I meant what I said, Harriet. My one condition, you remember that, don’t you?”