The Family Home by L. H. Stacey

Author:L. H. Stacey [Stacey, L. H.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Boldwood Books
Published: 2024-11-27T00:00:00+00:00

24

PRESENT DAY – DECEMBER 2023 – HATTIE

Leaving both Luke and Adam to sit with her mother, Hattie frantically made her way out of the room and through the sterile hospital corridors like a woman on a mission.

Seeing her mother had been a shock. The vibrant and glamourous woman she’d previously been had been reduced to a tiny skeletal frame. A woman who’d struggled to string more than a few words together, during a meeting that had left them all feeling confused and disillusioned. Not one of them had been able to decipher what she’d been trying to say, although the words she’d used had made Hattie fear the worst and, without a moment to lose, she set off for the house, determined to honour her mother’s dying wish. She would make sure the house was ready for her to be taken home and, while doing that, she had every intention of finding the truth.

‘What the hell were you playing at, Mum?’ Hattie questioned as the tears sprang to her eyes. ‘What were you trying to say and what the hell did you mean by it all?’ She felt confused, bitter and annoyed. All the feelings she really didn’t want to have, not at a time when her emotions were already bouncing around the walls.

Climbing into her car, Hattie took a final look up at the hospital, at the arrow slit windows as the words her mother had used spiralled around her mind. ‘I didn’t… know what he’d done… He told me… they couldn’t cope… they could barely look after themselves…’ And, worst of all, ‘they had other children…’ Each sentence on its own would have meant something to her mother, but saying them all out loud, all together, had come out like a jumbled mess until her mother had said, ‘I got what I deserved…’ These had been the words that had sent a chill running down Hattie’s spine and her mind immediately flashed back to the night Alice disappeared and those three words she’d written on the desk pad. ‘They’re my children.’

Pulling up outside the house, Hattie could feel the palpitations in her chest increasing, and she stared up at the house, at the windows and at the door, and tried to fit all the pieces of the jigsaw together. Adam had once been convinced that they’d all been adopted and maybe they had, but there was no evidence to support that.

Slowly, Hattie pushed open the door and stepped inside, where she stood for a few moments, held her breath and, just as she had so many times in the past, she listened to the sounds of the house. The creaking pipes and the movement of roof beams had all been surprisingly soothing during the night. But now she was alone, the nerves and the panic returned, and, in an attempt to ward off a feeling that was becoming all-consuming, she felt a sudden urge to make her peace with the house and walked deliberately from room to room, checked inside and reassured herself that each room contained nothing that could possibly hurt her.

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