Single (ARC)

by K. L. Slater

  ‘I had the babies, Darcy. I told George I’d made my decision and he said that because I was completely alone, he would help me and we’d sort out the mess, as he called it, afterwards.’ She pauses, steeling herself to continue. ‘On George’s insistence, I didn’t register with a midwife, didn’t attend anti-natal classes. He fed me horror stories of the sub-standard care women received and said he would personally look after me.’

  She fell silent for a moment or two, thinking back.

  ‘It seems crazy now I never suspected him of having a hidden agenda in keeping me out of the system. I guess it must have been the hormones and I admit, crazy as it sounds, some days I allowed myself to imagine life with George. A proper family. I mean, people change, right?’

  I don’t respond. Her story is getting crazier by the minute.

  ‘I did what he said and I had a good pregnancy. George was caring and I gave birth at home, just me and George, to two perfect little girls, non-identical twins. I saw them, held them, but I felt so ill after the birth, lost a lot of blood and then post-natal depression hit.’ Her voice grows faint. ‘He took wonderful care of me and our babies, Romy and Esther; I even began to think he might have changed, that we might have a future together. That’s the strength of his hold on people… he can just turn your doubts about him around.’

  I think about all the times I’ve been resolved to take matters into my own hands with the police but the closest I’ve got is calling 101 for advice. Each and every time I’ve put up a fight about sorting out the problem with Opal, he’s convinced me otherwise. Turned my doubts around, as Opal so succinctly puts it.

  But I don’t trust her. And she’s just said she had twins!

  ‘But what happened to the other baby… There’s just Romy now.’

  Her face contorts into a mask of grief and sadness.

  ‘One of my babies died. George said at the beginning that she was the weaker one and that’s normal.’ Opal lets out a strangled whimper. ‘I was so, so tired but I insisted on feeding my daughters myself, and…’ I wait as she fights to say the words. ‘I woke up, realised I’d fallen asleep feeding one and I’d rolled on to her… smothered her at just a week old. I was responsible for her death.’

  ‘Oh no!’ I press my fingers to my lips against the horror of it. Something new mothers are terrified of doing. I remember vividly the joy and contentment of sleeping with your tiny baby but also the fear that you might crush them or suffocate them whilst sleeping.

  ‘I was hysterical, begging George to help me but he was furious. He turned so cold, said that I wasn’t fit to bring up a child and that he had no choice but to take Romy off me for her safety, bring her up on his own. I’d had mental health problems in the past, you see; I was hit very badly by the death of my brother and I had told him all about that as we got to know each other.’

  ‘Having mental health problems doesn’t mean you’re not fit to be a mother, Opal,’ I say.

  ‘I know that now,’ she says. ‘But back then, I was in the grip of it still. I had an eating disorder and I was self-harming.’ She pulls up her sleeves and holds out her arms. I glance away from the road and smart at tangle of both silvery lines and newer, dark red slashes that criss-cross her bony wrists. ‘I was already on strong medication for anxiety and depression. He made me believe that what he said was true, that I was an unfit mother.’

  ‘So you accidentally killed your baby?’

  She nods, her eyes glittering with tears. ‘He said that if I tried to get Romy back, he would kill her and blame it on me.’ Her eyes swim with emotion. ‘Who’d believe me, with my history of mental illness, against a top surgeon? I knew he had it in him to hurt her.’

  She sniffs hard and looks at me.

  ‘But there’s more, you see. You’re not the only person I’ve been watching, Darcy.’

  Sixty-One

  George had pulled in a favour and dropped Kane and Romy off at the hospital’s private crèche which was usually, his colleagues told him, nigh on impossible to get into without a prior booking.

  He’d left them happily joining in a singing story-time session and dashed back to the Audi which he’d parked on double-yellows near the ambulance bay. He slipped the parking attendant a tenner as he jumped back in the vehicle.

  He wanted to get away from the place as quickly as he could after this morning’s meeting. Things were going badly wrong.

  But now it was time to get back to Darcy so they could go and find Harrison. It had to be said, the boy had been a bit of an attitude since moving into the house. George had tried hard to form a bond with the child but it wasn’t happening. Harry obviously saw George as a threat to his father’s memory – aided by Joel’s family no doubt – and it had been easier for George to back off.

  Harrison excelled at sport and this sometimes gave him an unlikeable air of superiority on occasion. Probably like his father, George thought. From what Darcy had told him, Joel had been a bit of a footballer in his time. Strictly local teams, though, nothing remotely impressive.

  ‘Give him some time,’ Darcy had said about the boy. ‘He’ll come around, I know it.’

  When George thought about his own father when he was Harrison’s age, any display of cheek was greeted with the same action: a swift slap around the head. He wasn’t condoning kids being treated like that but it was frustrating that Darcy never so much as raised her voice to her eldest son when he misbehaved and showed little respect.

  When he got back to the school, he’d take Darcy to the remote place where he was certain they’d find Harrison. Opal’s place, he’d come to think of it.

  ‘She used to like to go there, for “reflection time” as she called it. It’s about a fifteen-minute drive.’ As he told Darcy before he’d left for the hospital crèche, ‘It’s just a hunch but it’s the best idea I have right now. If we draw a blank we’ll call the police from there, OK?’

  And she’d agreed.

  He looked down now at his hands, clutching the steering wheel so tight his knuckles were white. He had to convince Darcy not to call the police. Surely she knew there was nothing they could do about what had happened so far?

  He needed to know Darcy trusted him, believed what he said about Opal. If she started to see the woman as someone to pity, or tried to help her in some way, it could be disastrous and Harrison would be in terrible danger.

  ‘Please God,’ he said out loud to himself. ‘Please let everything go well so we can put an end to this madness.’

  He gave up a silent prayer that Darcy’s faith in him was strong.

  Sixty-Two

  I just want to get her out of the car now but Opal is still talking about watching someone else.

  ‘Who is this other person you’ve been watching?’ I snap, seriously doubting her sanity. She nearly had me, had nearly convinced me that she was the innocent party in all that had supposedly happened. ‘If I find out you’ve taken my son somewhere, if he’s harmed, I’ll… I’ll kill you myself.’

  Steph’s face flashes into my mind, her face full of judgement that I could say such a thing as a mother, in charge of two impressionable boys.

  Clearly alarmed, Opal slinks down in the passenger seat. Does she think I might hurt her right now?

  Then I see it’s something outside that’s scared her.

  I look up to see the back end of George’s Audi as he drives slowly past the side street we’re parked on.

  ‘Get out, now,’ I hiss. ‘I need to find my son.’

  ‘I’m parked on the next road,’ she says, opening the passenger door. ‘If you need me, I mean. Be careful. When you tell him you know everything, he will turn nasty. And Darcy?’

  I stare at her, saying nothing. Her eyes are brighter than I’ve seen them before. Hopeful. But she is misguided if she thinks I’m going to just blindly swallow everything she’s told me.

  ‘Everything I’ve told you is true,’ she says, as if she senses my doubt, You have to believe that.’

  I
reach over and grab the inside door handle, pulling it shut behind her. She stands and watches as I press the automatic locking system. My head doesn’t feel big enough to fit in everything she’s just told me. I don’t want to think about it. I just want my son back.

  My hands are shaking so much I can hardly get the car moving but I manage it and after a couple of kangaroo jumps, I drive up the road and around the school to the front of the building.

  I don’t know whether I want to tell George everything or tell him nothing at all. If I utter one thing she’s told me, the whole stack of secrets or lies will come crashing down. All I care about in this precise moment is finding Harrison.

  ‘Where have you been?’ George demands when I unlock the car and he wrenches the driver’s door open. ‘I told you to stay here, outside school.’

  ‘I drove round the block,’ I lie, searching his face for some kind of clue of who he really is. ‘Looking for Harrison.’

  ‘He’s clearly not here and there’s not a moment to lose,’ he says, hassled. ‘Leave your car here, I’ll drive us.’

  I do as he says and within a few minutes we’re driving, quite fast, out of the city.

  ‘Where are the children?’ My mouth is so dry I’m going to have a coughing fit soon.

  George gives me a sideways glance and wipes a few spots of perspiration from his upper lip.

  ‘There’s a bottle of water in the glove compartment,’ he says. ‘The children are at the hospital crèche. They’re quite safe, it’s run by qualified staff as you’d expect.’

  They’re quite safe…

  Are they, though? If George is the monster Opal says he is, he might know what’s happened to Harrison and have already hurt Kane.

  It feels ludicrous to even think it.

  I pull out the bottle of still water and take a swig. My hands are shaking, my mind racing. ‘I’m a bag of nerves.’ I start to cry. ‘Where are we going? I really think we need to call the police, Harrison could be… in danger.’

  He reaches over and puts his hand on my thigh. ‘I know it’s hard but try to keep calm, Darcy. We’ll find Harrison, I’m sure of it.’

  And there he goes again, kind and considerate. I feel a twinge of guilt for doubting him.

  ‘Where exactly are we going?’ My voice sounds snappy and I cough and try again. ‘Where do you think Harry might be?’

  When I say his name, I think about his love of football and how he takes care of his brother. He can be a grumpy so and so at times but has always been an affectionate child and isn’t afraid of giving me a hug in front of his teammates.

  The lump in my throat seems to swell.

  ‘It’s not far. Sit back and breathe. Soon you’ll have him back and then I’ll do what I should have done a while ago. I’ll call the police and we’ll sort Opal out once and for all.’

  He sounds so… plausible.

  I want to believe him with all my heart. I do.

  Sixty-Three

  Opal calls me in a panic, tells me to be at the end of the street in two minutes flat. I don’t know how but I do it, although I look a bit of a state. Unbrushed hair and no make-up.

  She frowns when she sees me. ‘Good job you’re not at work today. Jump in, we need to catch them up.’

  ‘Are they headed to the house?’ I ask her.

  ‘Yes. that’s where Harrison will be. I can read George like a book now.’

  ‘And Romy?’

  ‘Darcy told me she was at the hospital crèche with Kane, so she’s quite safe. Don’t worry, Mum.’

  ‘Stay tucked well behind him. I’m not even sure we should be involving ourselves in this.’

  She shakes her head in despair at me but you never stop worrying about your children, do you? No matter how old they get.

  ‘Mum, there’s a chance he’s going to show his true colours, in front of witnesses. If he does, there’s a possibility I could get Romy back. At the very least, if I can get inside the house, I can record what’s being said on my phone. This is the best chance we’ve ever had.’

  I hope she’s right, I really do. But I gave up hope of getting my granddaughter back a long time ago. The most I could hope for was to see her now and again, even though Romy didn’t know who I was.

  When George offered me the job as housekeeper, it wasn’t a difficult decision. I hated him but I knew he needed someone who knew about Opal, could help control her and be someone he could trust.

  I knew he was blackmailing my daughter about the death of tiny Esther, who never got a chance at life. I knew if his wife hadn’t died, he wouldn’t have let either of us near Romy.

  So, when I got the chance to work for him and take care of my granddaughter, I knew it was the best chance of us getting Romy back for good. I had to promise not to allow Opal to see her unless George approved and I stuck to my word… mostly. I told Romy that Opal was my friend and we did get away with a few ‘unofficial’ visits now and then.

  I could just about keep my daughter at bay that way. But when Darcy came on the scene, Opal became terrified she’d take her place, that she’d become Romy’s mother. I must admit, seeing Darcy with Romy in the house, every day getting closer and her trying to cut my own involvement down, was a big challenge for me, too.

  In the end, I couldn’t keep my big mouth shut and I managed to get myself fired.

  But I’m here now to support Opal and it’s the first time we can stand together against George Mortimer.

  Now he’s fired me and replaced Opal in Romy’s life completely, we’ve nothing to lose, have we?

  Sixty-Four

  Five minutes later, there were open fields on either side of the car and yet it was just three miles out of the city’s boundary.

  It never failed to amaze George how quickly, once he got on the main roads, the city was left behind. There was far less traffic out here too. He’d passed only two vehicles, and one of those was a tractor.

  ‘Are we nearly there?’

  ‘Don’t worry, we’re just two minutes away. Soon you’ll have Harrison back in your arms, I’m sure of it, darling.’

  Darcy was a bag of nerves, terrified that if Harrison wasn’t here, that they’d wasted vital time in finding out where he was or who he was with. But she should have faith in him. It made him angry that she still doubted him.

  At the end of the road, he took a left, then a sharp right, and saw the house up ahead.

  ‘Just wait here.’ George turned off the engine, turned to her and touched her hand.

  ‘But… no! I need to see if—’

  ‘Trust me, Darcy,’ he said firmly. ‘I have to make sure it’s safe. You know how crazy Opal is, who knows what she might try? I’ll come back out and signal when it’s all clear. OK?’

  ‘OK,’ she whispered, on the verge of tears. She mumbled something about seeing Opal near the school but George didn’t want to be pulled into a conversation about Opal at this point.

  George got out of the Audi.

  Sixty-Five

  Daniela was very nearly there: on the cusp of getting the sweet revenge she’d craved for years. It had been a long road with twists and turns along the way.

  She’d had a couple of scares, in the early days: one when they’d only known each other a few weeks and had enjoyed a boozy night out at the pub where they’d initially met when they’d both been out with their respective friends. The second time was just a week before they married.

  Both times, she’d panicked over her late period and had prayed she wasn’t pregnant. She wanted to do everything right, be married, settled, have the right home to bring up their child. Little did she know back then it would never happen.

  When Joel died and she found out about his double life, the betrayal of his marriage vows was bad enough. But when she discovered he had two sons by a woman called Darcy Hilton, her heart had literally broken in two.

  She’d found out via Joel’s mobile phone. Text messages Darcy had sent when Joel had been on death’s door and had left unanswer
ed.

  Joel’s family had convinced her to say nothing, to just take Joel’s money and quietly make a new life. They’d known about the kids and Darcy all along and said nothing to either woman.

  But Daniela had called the number and Darcy had answered, and within ten minutes, both their lives were altered forever.

  Daniela had been desperate for a baby throughout their ten-year marriage. They’d been through the gruelling medical mill, done all that. Discovering, after tests, that the problem was hers and Joel was perfectly healthy had been a particular low point. Feelings of being less-than, inadequate, incomplete… she’d had the pleasure of them all.

  Then there had been two cycles of IVF on the NHS that had failed. And all that time, Joel had been spectacularly neutral about her getting pregnant.

  ‘I love you,’ he’d reassured her at the lowest moments. ‘I don’t care if you can’t have kids, that’s just not important to me.’

  And she’d believed him, that was the worst bit. That was the part she still beat herself up about even now, even though he was long dead.

  But now, she’d been thrown a lifeline. Quite unexpectedly, thanks to Steph mentioning where George worked and how she thought someone ought to set him straight about the ‘real’ Darcy, she’d managed to convince George to speak to her after work one day.

  The magnetism of the man was incredible and she felt herself falling for him almost immediately. George felt the same way and as Steph had said, Daniela was a far better match for sophisticated George than Darcy with her hang-ups and mental health issues.

  George and Daniela had got close very quickly under George’s cover of work meetings and job interviews. Darcy had always been so gullible. But he’d levelled with Daniela, told her the truth about the fix he’d got himself in with Opal and Darcy and they’d schemed together and come up with a viable plan if they could pull it off.