Not My Daughter by Suzy K Quinn

Author:Suzy K Quinn [Quinn, Suzy K]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2020-05-15T00:00:00+00:00

Lorna

It’s 7 a.m.

Liberty’s been away all night.

I’m waiting at the Heathrow arrivals gate, pacing like a mad woman. Sleep is still a stranger.

All night. Liberty’s been there all night. In his house full of lies and hunting weapons.

Maybe she’s dead already.

I throw up into my takeaway Starbucks cup and look up at the Heathrow arrivals board.

The board flashes and my eyes flash with it, twitching.

Then I see my her – my sister.

Dee strides through the arrival gates like the commanding soldier in an army. She wears a bright red coat around her soft shoulders. Shiny calf-length black boots. Her hair is cut short, flecked with blonde streaks and she wears dangly Perspex earrings and glasses with green frames.

For a plus-sized woman, my sister has bold dress sense. Most larger women try to blend in, but not Dee. She’s not a blend-in person.

I throw my coffee cup into the trash (rubbish bin, Lorna) and walk towards her.

Dee’s face tenses when she sees me. ‘Oh, Lorna.’ She hugs me, pulling me into lavender-scented softness. ‘I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.’

I let myself fall apart, sobbing as my sister holds the pieces together. Then Dee lets go and finds my eyes with hers.

‘Liberty will come back. She just has to find her own way out of the woods. Okay? A leap of faith, huh? We have to trust our kids. She’s not stupid.’

‘Don’t you get it?’ I say. ‘He’ll be getting into her mind, twisting her thoughts. You know what he does, Dee.’

‘You knew this day would come. We both did. I could see it coming a mile off. You held on too tight to her and she ran.’

‘I tried to keep her safe,’ I say. ‘That’s all I ever did. I need a plan, Dee. He’s too clever. I’ve been coming at this like an angry bull, and it’s not the way. He sees me coming.’

‘We need breakfast,’ says Dee. ‘This is too upsetting on an empty stomach.’

‘Isn’t it like 2 a.m. your time?’

‘So call it a late dinner then. But who cares about me. You need breakfast. I bet you haven’t eaten. I had to practically force food down you as a kid.’

‘You know I can’t eat when I’m upset.’

‘Listen, I know how distressing this is for you,’ says Dee. ‘I know you never wanted to revisit the past. You nearly lost your mind back then. Honestly, Michael was worse than cancer for you. I thought you weren’t going to make it. But things are different now. You have this Nick guy. Your own business. A nice home. Liberty will get this out of her system and you’ll all be better for it – you’ll see.’

‘How can you be so calm? He’ll be telling her all sorts of things about me. How unhinged I am. A desperate groupie. And … the rest. All the rest. And then she’ll hate me and never want to come home. And he has guns at that place—’

‘Come on.’ Dee puts an arm around my shoulder. ‘You need to eat.

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