Everything You Told Me by Lucy Dawson

Author:Lucy Dawson [Dawson, Lucy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Corvus

CHAPTER TWELVE

Chloe chatters away as we drive back, but for once I’m quieter, letting Matthew field. I open the window as we head down one of the more open stretches of road and feel the cool air chill my skin, closing my eyes and letting the sound of Chloe and Matthew’s voices wash over me. My head is spinning with questions and fears that I have no answers for. I can’t make sense of anything. I feel as if I’m trying to grasp at the finest of silvery threads, but they disappear like smoke as my fingers curl around them. All I am able to hold onto for certain is that I would not ever knowingly hurt myself. But it feels nowhere near enough to anchor myself to.

‘Sal?’ Matthew taps me. ‘Chloe’s cold.’

‘Oh, sweetheart, I’m so sorry.’ I lean forward instantly and do the window up again. ‘Is that better, are you OK?’ I spin around to look at her fretfully.

‘Hey, it’s OK. She’s fine, aren’t you, Clo?’

Our daughter nods, busily watching videos on my phone of herself when she was about two. Matthew reaches out and takes my hand in his, holding it gently, until he has to change gear and is forced to let me go again.

We eventually pull up on the drive, and I reluctantly undo my seatbelt as Matthew switches the engine off. Mum is going to have twenty questions for me, and she’s going to be scared out of her mind when I tell her I’ve got to go for a CT scan… But as we approach the front door, there are more immediate problems to hand. I can hear Theo crying before we’ve even managed to make it into the house.

‘What on earth?’ Matthew says in alarm, and fumbles with the key in the lock in his haste, before the door swings open to reveal my poor mother, desperately rocking and shushing an absolutely scarlet and completely wet-faced Theo, alongside an equally harassed-looking Caroline, who is helplessly watching on. Both women’s relief to see us is palpable. Theo has clearly been crying for some time.

‘Hey!’ I exclaim, and hurry over, gathering my little boy into my arms. His sobs immediately begin to subside and I feel him start to relax. ‘What’s wrong?’

‘I have absolutely no idea,’ Mum says. ‘He was fine, we were having a lovely time. I read him some stories and put him down for a nap, and that’s when it all started. He was crying and couldn’t settle, so I went in, picked him up – and then he just wouldn’t stop.’

‘There, there.’ I rub Theo’s back. ‘There weren’t any sudden noises? No one else has been here? It’s just been the three of you in the house?’

‘Oh, for God’s sake, Sally!’ Mum explodes suddenly. ‘Please don’t start all that again! My nerves won’t take it. Of course no one else has been in the house!’

I stare at her in surprise. ‘I just meant he didn’t hear a strange voice, or someone delivering something that might have freaked him out? He’s not normally like this.

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