The Nursery: An absolutely gripping and unputdownable psychological thriller by Sue Watson

Author:Sue Watson [Watson, Sue]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781803145648
Publisher: Bookouture
Published: 2022-10-19T16:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-ONE

The next morning, everything felt different. Sofia was rifling through the kitchen drawer when I got up. ‘Where’s that plastic, you know the crescent-shaped piece that they left after the break-in?’

‘Why?’ I asked.

‘I’ve been looking at the photos, and that mobile, over my cot, when I was a baby…’

‘Yeah?’

‘I think that’s where it came from, it’s the moon, from “Hey Diddle, Diddle.” You know, the cow jumped over—’

‘Oh, God, I reckon you’re right.’

We both looked at each other.

‘Do you think Cerys left it?’ she asked.

I nodded slowly, feeling really uneasy. I went to my room and found the piece of plastic in the bag at the back of the wardrobe where I’d stashed it, took it through to the kitchen and handed it to Sofia.

‘It is!’ she said. ‘It’s the crescent moon from the cot mobile!’

She was strangely delighted at this, like she had found a jigsaw piece she’d been looking for all her life. I hoped, in time, she’d be able to accept that she was adopted. I’d been an idiot not telling her, but I had my reasons. Besides, a part of me felt that if I didn’t say it out loud, and she continued to believe I was her birth mother, then why rock the boat? But a couple of times that morning, I caught her taking sidelong glances at me. I wondered how much this knowledge was going to affect our relationship, it was bound to, it was so fundamental to who we were to each other. And more than that, Sofia now had to discover who she was, and I wanted that for her, but at the same time, I didn’t want her to delve too deep.

Given the lateness of the previous evening, and the huge emotional conversations we’d had, we were both a little late, and a little tired that morning, so I drove her to school. I dropped her off feeling strangely bereft, and it seemed her feelings still echoed mine, as they often had.

‘Would you pick me up later, Mum?’ she asked quietly.

‘Yes, of course. I’m not going into work today. I’ll be here at 3.30, and we can talk some more, eh?’

She nodded, and before she climbed from the car, she gave me a hug. ‘Love you,’ she said, as she opened the door.

‘Love you more,’ I called back, watching her walk away. I didn’t leave until she was safely in school, I couldn’t.

I called Mr Woods to tell him I was poorly. I never took sick days so he was concerned. ‘Can I bring you anything, I hate to think of you alone, not able to get to the shops, Emily, and what about Sofia, will she be okay?’

I assured him we’d be fine, that we’d had a bit of an emotional couple of days, but I’d tell him when I saw him.

‘Is everything okay, Emily?’ he asked, concerned.

‘Yes, I think we’re going to be okay.’

‘You know I’m here, remember my promise to Dorothy,’ he replied.

‘Yes, and you’ve kept that promise.

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