The Favourite Child: A completely gripping, heart-wrenching and emotional page-turner by Emma Robinson

Author:Emma Robinson [Robinson, Emma]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bookouture
Published: 2025-02-27T00:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-SIX

As Erica moved away from the shelter of the buildings on the high street, the wind grew stronger and she was grateful for the sweater she’d brought. Walking on the large pebbles was tricky, even in her trainers. They gave way under her feet so that extra effort was needed just to put one foot in front of the other. Glancing left and right along the shoreline, she tried to pull her mind back from imagining Mollie wading out to sea.

Andrew’s tears had rocked her fragile confidence in them finding Mollie: his rare display of fear infectious. When had she last seen him cry? It’d been so easy to see him as the bad guy since she’d left to live in the apartment with Ben. To ascribe her own interpretation – stubbornness, selfishness, control – on his relentless push towards respite care for Ben. Why had he never spoken to her like he did just now? All I ever wanted was to keep you all safe.

She took a left towards Thorpeness. At nearly nine o’clock, only a few brave souls were still on the beach in the dusk and it took longer to reach them than she’d thought it would. They shook their heads at the photograph of Mollie on her phone; they hadn’t seen anyone that looked like her. Regarding her with sympathy, they promised to keep their eyes peeled and to tell her daughter she was looking for her. One of the women, older but robust in a thick gilet and walking shoes, patted her hand. ‘They like to worry us, don’t they? I’m sure she’ll turn up soon with a story to tell.’

Erica thanked them and continued walking along the beach. How was it that some people could be so calm about parenting? So accepting of the fact that accidents happen and problems occur and dangers might cross their path? Anxiety had been her constant companion for so long, like an inflatable ball of stale fear which expanded and contracted inside her body. At all times, vague worries floated around her head like wisps or sprites. Sometimes intangible. Unclear. Yet filling her head with so much noise that – at its loudest – rational thought couldn’t fight its way through.

Her phone rang in her hand and she almost dropped it. Her heart soared in hope then fell when she saw the number. Her mother.

Fighting an irrational anger at the intrusion, she let it go to voicemail. For most people, she’d imagine, a call from a parent at a time like this would be a welcome comfort. But that had never been her experience with her own mother. Any communication between them turned Erica back into an unhappy teen, fighting to be understood, to be listened to. Talking to her now, when she would just be trying to put more pressure on her to come home, or to tell her the latest ‘amazing’ thing that her brother had done, was the last thing she needed.

The adrenaline of the

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