The Family Next Door(67)

If it weren’t for Esther, my generous aunt in Melbourne, giving me rent money, I wouldn’t have survived as long as I had. It seemed as good a reason as any to name you after her.

That day as I sat in my apartment, I lifted you out of your basket and placed you to my breast. When you were finished, I realized you’d need a fresh diaper, which meant a trip to the store. I hadn’t expected you for a few more weeks so I was unprepared. But the idea of a trip to the store filled me with anxiety. The only time I’d been out of the house in the past few months was to go to the hospital and to go to the grocery store. It was at the grocery store a month ago that I’d run into Laurel. She’d smiled at me for a quick moment before recognition had come to her face. I’d abandoned my shopping cart immediately and run back to the car.

I needed to call Esther. She’d offered to come to Sydney to help out for a few weeks after the baby was born. Without any other help, I had no choice but to accept her offer. Or did I? After I finished feeding, I could pick up the phone and call Esther … or, I could get on a bus to Melbourne. In Melbourne I wouldn’t have to worry about who I’d bump into in the street. I wouldn’t have to worry about what people thought. I could make new friends. Start over somewhere a long way from here where no one would know us.





51


ESSIE


Essie looked up when she saw movement in her doorway. But it wasn’t her mum and Mia standing there, it was Ben and Isabelle. Somewhere in the back of Essie’s mind, it struck her that they were an odd pair to arrive at her door together, but she was too worried about her mum and Mia to address it.

“No word from Mum?” she said.

Ben shook his head.

“Well … where’s Polly?” she asked.

“I left her with Ange.”

Essie felt her panic rise a notch. If Ben had left Polly with Ange then obviously he was worried too. “Well, I think we should call the—”

“I’ve called two hospitals,” Ben said. His facial muscles were tight, she noticed, making him look older. “And I’ll keep calling. But the road is clear between home and the hospital. And your mum would have had ID on her, someone would have called us.”

“What about Lois?” Essie suggested. “Have you tried her?”

“I don’t have her number.”

“I have it.” Essie retrieved the phone number and gave it to Ben and he walked into the hallway to make the call.

“Are you all right?” Isabelle asked Essie when he was gone.

Essie wrung her hands. “It’s so unlike Mum to disappear like this.”

“Is it?”

Essie looked at Isabelle for a long moment. “Isabelle, I know you think that Mum kidnapped me, but it’s just not possible. I accept that it’s possible that we are sisters, and I want to take my own DNA test to confirm this. But if we are, it’s not because Mum kidnapped me. If anything it’s—”

“I confronted her.”

Essie blinked. “You confronted my mum?”

“I was going to wait until you had a chance to digest the news, but then I saw her outside my house and I couldn’t hold back. I just—”

“And?” Despite Essie’s confidence that her mum was an innocent party, she had to admit she was curious. “What did she say?”

“She denied it,” Isabelle admitted. “But she seemed … confused. When I told her I had proof she seemed very rattled.”

“Rattled?” Essie said. Her mum was never rattled. She might have laughed (politely, of course). She’d have been puzzled as to why Isabelle thought she’d kidnapped a baby—who wouldn’t be? Essie imagined her inviting Isabelle in (for tea!) so they could sort the whole misunderstanding out. But she wouldn’t have been rattled. “How do you mean?”

“She sort of glazed over,” Isabelle continued. “Then she put Mia in the car and left. That was a few hours ago.”

“Lois hasn’t heard from her today,” Ben said, reentering the room. He tossed the phone down onto the bed with more force than necessary.

“Mom seemed rattled?” Essie repeated. “And then she put Mia in the car and we haven’t seen her since?”

Isabelle looked like she might cry. Ben pressed a hand against his forehead. A nurse peeked her head around the door, assessed the situation, then ducked away again.

“You’re telling me my mother is a child abductor,” Essie said slowly. She was looking at Ben and Isabelle, but she was talking to herself. “And now she’s missing and she has my daughter?”

Ben looked from Essie to Isabelle and back again. Finally he reached for the phone again.

“All right,” he said. “I’m calling the police.”





52


FRAN


No good will come out of this, Fran told herself, as the phone rang in her ear. No good at all. And yet, she continued to wait on the line.

Nigel was gone. He’d left a few days ago, ostensibly on business. It was good timing, he said. They both needed time and space, and this trip—to a conference in Brisbane, would give them that. Fran didn’t know when he was coming back, or if he was coming back. All she knew was that she was bereft without him. So was Rosie. Even Ava seemed down in the dumps.