Lost Daughter: An Utterly Heartbreaking and Unforgettable Page Turner by Ali Mercer

Author:Ali Mercer [Mercer, Ali]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781786819666
Amazon: B07NPX3XYM
Publisher: Bookouture
Published: 2019-05-13T14:00:00+00:00

Twenty-Seven

Rachel

Whatever secret mixed feelings Rachel might have had at the prospect of change in Leona’s life, they don’t last the journey to the airport.

She hasn’t seen her since Leona’s leaving do soon after Easter, and what with one thing and another, they haven’t managed to get together with Viv since the evening in Rachel’s bedsit. First, they’d postponed meeting up because Viv had been laid low by a cold, and then it had been difficult to rearrange because Leona had been working non-stop on getting her business off the ground. Now, seeing Leona for the first time in a couple of weeks, Rachel is shocked by the change in her.

Leona is almost unrecognisable as the self-possessed bohemian who had greeted Rachel that first day at Fun-to-Learn just over four months earlier, or even as the friend who had confided to Viv and Rachel that she had been invited to meet her daughter, who had cried with them and let them comfort her, and who had been both overwhelmed and full of hope. Now she’s pale and petrified; it’s almost as if she’s travelling towards another loss rather than a miraculous reunion.

As they turn away from the check-in queue she makes a visible effort to rally. She looks at Rachel but without focus, as if she can’t really pay attention to her any more.

‘You should go,’ Leona tells her. ‘Get back to work. I don’t want to keep you – you’ve done more than enough for me. Don’t hang around here. I’ll be fine.’

‘OK. If you’re sure… Before I go, I have a present for you. For luck,’ Rachel says.

She had to do something. She’d felt so bad about not being unambiguously happy for Leona when she heard the news, this is a gift for herself as much as for her friend. It’s a small gift, anyway, something that won’t take up too much space. She rummages in her handbag and brings it out: a chunk of unpolished rose quartz in a clear plastic bag. She’d bought it on impulse from a stall at Kettlebridge market that she’d browsed one Saturday with Becca.

‘It’s meant to promote healing,’ she says, ‘and unconditional love.’

Leona takes it and examines it; her hand closes tight around it.

‘Thank you,’ she says, and steps forward to give Rachel a hug. Today she smells soft, talcum-powdery, like lavender; she’s someone who is always changing her scent.

Leona withdraws first and heads off in the direction of security, pausing only to look back over her shoulder and wave before she’s lost in the crowds. She still has the crystal in her fist.

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