The Family Next Door(56)

Except something was wrong.

What was it? It felt like I was missing something, but I had it all—bag, purse, keys. I must have laughed when I realized.

My baby! I’d forgotten my baby.

I turned around and walked back into the hospital. A nurse glanced up when I came back inside. She was on the phone, busy, so I pointed at my room and kept walking. I found you right there in the hallway, still in your wheely-crib. A pang of fear went through me. They’d found you. Could I get reported for this? Would children’s services come beating down my door? I could already read the headline: NEW MOTHER FORGETS HER BABY.

I wasn’t thinking rationally, of course. It was the medication. Surely they wouldn’t report me? Mothers were often disoriented after having their babies, it probably happened all the time. Still, I didn’t see the need to draw any more attention to my mistake. So I just gently lifted you from your crib and took you downstairs to the waiting cab.





41


ISABELLE


“What do you mean you’re my sister?” Essie said.

Isabelle was shaking. She’d been waiting for this moment since she was eight years old, but now it was here, she felt the enormity of it like a boulder on her shoulders. She moved to Essie’s bedside, twisting the bedcovers in her nervous fingers. “I know it sounds crazy, but you were nineteen days old when you were abducted from the Royal Sydney Hospital. Your name is Sophie. Sophie Heatherington.”

“I don’t understand,” Essie said. “Why do you think I am Sophie?”

Essie sat up straight, pulling her knees up in front of her. Her eyes were wide and interested—she was obviously curious, but a long way from believing she had a role in it.

“I saw you on the news when there was the fire in Pleasant Court and I nearly fainted,” Isabelle said. “You look exactly like my mum. Exactly. I may have only had nineteen days with you, but I was eight and you were my baby sister. I remember everything about you. The shape of your nose, the color of your skin. Your eyes—one brown and one blue.”

Mention of her eyes caused the slightest flicker of uncertainty in Essie. “But … I’m not the only person with a birthmark in my eye.”

“That’s true. And I’ve had a false alarm before—a girl from Adelaide with a birthmark in her eye. But this time, it was more than just the birthmark. After Sophie was taken, Mum and I trawled the newspaper announcements for weeks. We tried to get the police to follow up on all the people who announced the births of baby girls in Sydney in the week after Sophie was taken. When I saw your name on the news after the fire I knew there was something familiar about it. I double-checked and sure enough there was a birth notice for Esther Walker in the newspaper three days after Sophie was taken. It wasn’t proof, but I was convinced enough to try and find out more. So I took a leave of absence from my job and moved to Melbourne. The goal was to try and get some DNA, but I didn’t know how to get it from you so I took some of Mia’s hair. I did a DNA test. Our kinship index is greater than one point zero, which means Mia and I share DNA.”

Isabelle held out the document to Essie.

“You took Mia’s hair?”

“Read the document, Essie,” Isabelle said, more determined now. Now she’d started this, there was no going back. She needed to make Essie understand this, or she’d lose her all over again.

Essie glanced at the document briefly, then waved it away. “I don’t understand this … what does it mean?”

“It means Mia is my niece.”

“No. No, that can’t be right. I don’t believe you.”

“You don’t have to believe me,” Isabelle said. She stabbed a finger at the papers between them on the bed. “This is proof.”

Essie glanced down at the document again, keeping her distance as though it could infect her with something.

“What’s your birthdate, Essie?” Isabelle asked gently.

“June tenth.”

“Is that what it says on your birth certificate?” Essie handed the document back.

“I don’t have a birth certificate. But if I did, that’s what it would say.”

“Why don’t you have a birth certificate?”

“I don’t need one. I’m a homebody. I hardly want to leave the house, let alone the country.”

Isabelle watched her steadily. Essie rolled her eyes.

“Okay,” she said. “Then for the sake of argument, how did this happen? How did I end up with my mum instead of yours?”

“You weren’t well,” Isabelle started. Her mind drifted back to the day she came home from school and found Sophie screaming. It was a shock after the quiet, content baby she’d been for the previous few weeks.

“I’m taking her to the hospital,” Isabelle’s mum had said. “She has a fever.”

Isabelle had wanted to go to the hospital too, but instead she and Freddy were sent to a neighbor’s house. A few hours later when their dad collected them, her mum and Sophie still weren’t home. They were staying the night at the hospital, her dad told them.

The next day, Isabelle’s dad picked her up from school. The phone was ringing when they arrived home and Isabelle and Freddy ran to answer it. Isabelle got there first.

“Hello?”