The Secrets of Strangers by Charity Norman

Author:Charity Norman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: thriller, Fiction, suspense
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Published: 2020-03-02T13:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-FIVE

Rosie

The whole of her left side is numb now. She feels as though she’s rotting away along with the wet wood of the cupboard. She’s still holding the door shut, and her curled fingers feel brittle. She imagines trying to straighten them, imagines them cracking.

She checks the time on her phone. Nearly four.

When will you get me?

Four o’clock. See the little hand on the clock?

Julia will have put her own coat on by now. She’s clever like that. She’ll be all ready, sitting on the chair near the door, swinging her legs, singing to herself. She might be holding a picture she’s painted today, or scones they’ve made in the nursery kitchen.

She’ll be waiting and waiting. Soon she’ll be getting worried. She’s always had a fear of being forgotten but these past few months have been much worse. She was taken away from her dad—it was his fault, really, but how could a three-year-old understand that? She saw him shouting and attacking her mum. She left the only home she’d ever known and then she lost her granny. Too much sadness for a very small person.

This day may leave Julia without parents or grandparents, and there’s nobody else she knows. She might end up in a children’s home, or with foster parents! That would break her heart.

I’m sorry, I’m sorry.

The battery is down to fifteen per cent. Just enough. Soon it will die. She squints into the dark, wondering how to pack a lifetime of love into one short message.

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