Am I scared? Yes. I’m terrified, but the truth is bigger than my fear.
FORTY-SIX
NATALIE
‘Nat, where have you been? I was worried.’ Laura swilled down some tablets with the water she’d left for her.
‘Have you slept all this time?’
She nodded. ‘I’m so sorry for passing out last night. What a state to get in to.’ She paused and sat on the settee in her crumpled clothes. The smell of stale alcohol filled the small room so Natalie nudged the window open.
‘That’s okay. We did have a few too many.’
‘I had to call Bethany, asked her to open the shop up. Where did you go?’
Natalie felt like a stranger in her own home as Laura leaned back, relaxing in the space where she normally sat. ‘I went to the Smuggler, then I walked for ages, hoping to clear my head.’
‘You went where? I thought you weren’t going to go there. We talked about that.’
‘No.’ She shook her head. ‘You thought it was best that I don’t go there. I went straight in and I told Rachel. I told her that Alan was her father.’
Laura raised her eyebrows. ‘Wow, and how did she take it?’
‘How do you think?’ The vein next to her left eye began to twitch, something that happened a lot when she was tense.
‘Nat, have I said or done something wrong? You look angry.’
Maybe it was the biting of her inner cheek, her furrowed brows, or even the fact that she was gripping her keys so hard that a trickle of blood had trailed down the back of her hand.
‘Say something, you’re worrying me.’
She slammed the keys onto the coffee table and turned to face the window. Staring down at the street, she took a few deep breaths. ‘Why did you walk off with Rachel in her pushchair when she was a baby?’
Laura stood and stomped towards the kitchen. Natalie knew her coat was in there. She followed Laura and closed the door, trapping her in.
‘Nat, move out of my way.’ She pulled her coat over her shoulders.
She wasn’t going to let Laura leave until she had answers. Mary had caught her off guard and she still needed the truth, for Kate. She’d made a promise and she was going to keep it, not like her lousy cheating husband when it came to their wedding vows.
‘No, you are going to sit in that chair, at that table, and you’re not leaving this room until you’ve told me everything.’
‘Why are you doing this? Nat, you’re scaring me.’ Tears flooded her cheeks and she trembled that hard, the bracelet on her wrist jangled.
‘Sit.’
Without needing to be told again Laura pulled out the chair and sat with her arms folded in front of her.
‘Now tell me about Rachel.’
Laura sobbed so hard tears dripped into the crease of her neck. Natalie placed the kitchen roll in front of her.
‘Go on.’
‘Will you let me go if I tell you?’
‘Let you go! I’m not keeping you hostage. I just want to know what happened.’ Natalie wanted to know if the woman in front of her was capable of taking or hurting Jess.
‘When I first moved here, I wasn’t myself. You know I told you about my ex-husband? I came here to start afresh. I’d spent several months in a refuge and a room came up to rent just as I got offered a job in an art shop. Finally, I felt things were coming together. Before that, life was awful with the abuse, the hurt. It felt as though I’d been living in a war zone.’
