Rob started the engine and we finally left the storage yard. When we arrived at Jake’s house—not my home, not anymore—Rob phoned the police and left an anonymous tip that Jake Price had stashed drugs in a storage garage outside Bishoptown. I forced myself into the shower and let the hot water wash away the smell of mould from the wet garage walls. Then I dressed, collected my suitcase, and repacked some of the things I’d packed from the night before, along with more of Aiden’s clothes. Rob loaded his truck with as much baby paraphernalia as he could, while I tried to get in touch with Josie.
“Still no answer?” Rob wiped rain and sweat away from his forehead with the back of his hand and straightened up. His face was red from the effort of carrying heavy suitcases into the truck.
I shook my head. “I thought she’d still be off work. She’s taken some time off to deal with Hugh’s disappearance.”
“Do you want to stay with my mum and dad?”
I chewed on my bottom lip. “No. I have a key for Josie’s. We’ll go pick up Aiden and then I’ll call Josie when I get there. I’ve left a voicemail for now.”
“Are you sure she’s going to be okay with this?”
A sudden cramp rippled through my abdomen and I creased over.
“Emma?”
I straightened up as the pain dissipated. “I’m okay. Josie will be fine. I’d do the same for her given the circumstances, so she won’t have a problem with it.”
Rob nodded to indicate it was good enough for him, but he frowned at the same time. “Are you sure you’re all right?”
“Just the baby kicking.”
But I was quivering down to my toes. The pain had felt a lot worse than the baby kicking and I had no idea whether Josie would take me in. All I knew was that I didn’t want to be around Rob’s parents. Not after the trick his mum pulled that upset Aiden, and not after his dad had been questioned by the police. No. I needed to be somewhere that would be safe for Aiden. Though things were a mess with Hugh gone, I knew that Josie’s was the best option. It sounded as though Hugh wasn’t coming back, at least not for the foreseeable future, so I got to live with Josie alone for a week or two until I’d had the baby and could look for a flat in the village.
I couldn’t believe I was even at this junction in my life, but that’s what happens when all the control is taken from you. The worst part was how I’d let Jake take even more control from me. I’d let him persuade me to sell my parents’ house. I’d put my money into a joint account. I’d taken a job where I worked with him. I’d done all those stupid things because I loved and trusted him. Though I regretted it as I climbed back into Rob’s truck and watched the rain blur Bishoptown into an abstract painting, there came a time when I stopped regretting my decisions. No one should regret loving and trusting another human being. Yes, sometimes we direct our love and trust to the wrong person, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have done it at all. Hearts should be protected, but they shouldn’t be forced to close. The withered piece of coal hidden deep in my chest had once been full of love. But as we picked up Aiden and drove on to Josie’s house, it was full of nothing but hate.
39
It was late afternoon by the time we reached Josie’s house. The sun wouldn’t set for hours, but dark clouds had descended, preventing sunlight from penetrating the murky sky. I opened the door to the truck and climbed out, holding my protruding pregnant belly. The rain fell over us in one great torrent, and instantly I was transported back to that fateful day ten years ago when I lost my son. But this time, he was by my side. I held onto his arm with one hand and readjusted the hood on his raincoat with the other. Beneath the hood he was there, quiet as a church mouse, pale as a raw potato, and lifeless as a mannequin. My son. The boy whose only reactions since coming back to me had been destructive and violent. I wrapped a protective arm around his shoulder and walked him up to the house.
“Do you think the police have been to the garage yet?” I asked, raising my voice above the wind. “Stevenson’s not called.”
“He’ll ring you when they’ve put two and two together. At least you’re safe here away from him. They’ll have arrested him by the end of the day.”
I bent down to retrieve the spare key from the bottom of a pile of decorative rocks placed around a potted plant. The thing about Bishoptown is that nothing really happens. No one gets burgled, so no one thinks to keep their house safe. I dug the key out from the bottom of the fake rock.
“They’ll have him for the relationship with that girl in Bournemouth. I put it all front and centre so they’d find it right away,” Rob said. He carried the heaviest of my suitcases. “Then we need to figure out if Jake really took Aiden and why.” Rob glanced back at Aiden and lowered his voice. “Aiden hasn’t told us it was Jake.”
His words made me feel exhausted. There was too much to consider. Too many thoughts swirling around my mind in a whirlpool of words like kidnap and murder. I shut my eyes and forced the thoughts away.
“Are you all right?” Rob asked. “Do you want me to open the door?”