Page 113 of The Stolen Child

‘Reggie . . . Reggie was supposed to tell you so you could join me,’ Kimberly stammered.

Sally scoffed. ‘Well, that didn’t happen. Reggie disappeared too. I half suspected that he’d gone with you, but Nicola heard a rumour a year ago that he’d been killed.’

Kimberly paled and groaned softly, ‘Poor Reggie. So that’s why I never heard from him again. I always thought his life choices would catch up with him.’

Sally looked at her old friend in disbelief. ‘I couldn’t care less about bloody Reggie. He helped you take Zach from me. And I’m done talking to you. I want my son back now. Call your husband and tell him to bring Zach here immediately.’

‘Wait!’ Kimberly’s eyes darted to the phone, and then she turned back to Sally, her lips quivering. ‘How did you find me? And end up working here?’

Sally raised a hand to her temple, and felt the outline of the ragged scar that she hid behind her blonde hair. ‘While you were living your best life, I lost everything. Ian threw me out when the world discovered my past. The daughter of a prostitute, brought up in care, who was so negligent of her son, that she left him alone in a busy hair salon where he was snatched. Made for great headlines in the papers for a few weeks.’

‘The bastard! You were a good mother,’ Kimberly protested.

‘I know I was! I don’t need you to tell me that! You don’t get to say anything to me, because you lost that right when you stole my baby.’ Sally breathed in deeply, then added, ‘Once Ian threw me out on the street, bloodied and broken, with only a black sack filled with my clothes, I had nothing.’

‘What did you do?’ Kimberly whispered.

‘I couldn’t go to Nicola’s because the press relentlessly pursued her too. For a few weeks at least, until we became yesterday’s news, and they moved on to something else. So it was Sister Ailsa Jones who took me back to Sunshine House and gave me a room in the staff quarters to regain my strength.

‘Eventually, I went back to work at the salon. The only clue we had was that you’d planned to go to Spain, so I went to Spain whenever I could afford it, to search for you. Alicante, Barcelona, Malaga, Valencia . . . Sister Jones – Ailsa – and Nicola both chipped in some money to help pay for the airfares. But, as Nicola said, it was like looking for a needle in a haystack. Sister Ailsa kept saying that I must have faith. But I was slowly losing my mind, let alone my faith.’ Sally sighed. ‘I decided I needed a private detective, but I didn’t have that kind of money.

‘Nicola came to the rescue again. She has a friend who manages the salon here on the Carousel, and she pulled in a favour, getting me a three-month contract. The money is good, but the tips are even better. I’ve been saving every penny. And as the ship visits several Spanish ports it means I can search for you here too.’ Sally laughed mirthlessly. ‘And to think I fought Nicola when she suggested this; I didn’t want to accept the position because I was afraid it would take me further from my little boy. But Sister Ailsa was right all along. I did need to have faith, because this job has led me to you and Zach.’

‘Sally, I’m so sorry. You didn’t deserve any of this.’ Kimberly sighed, and half smiled at Sally. ‘I shouldn’t be surprised that you found us. You are the most determined woman I’ve ever known. I’ve never seen anyone fight for what she wants more than you.’

Sally threw a look of disgust at Elsie. For the past two years she’d thought about what she might say to her when she found her. Because Sally had never been in doubt that one day she would do just that, and get her son back. ‘You said to me once that I was a pure bright white light, but you’d had to step back from me so you didn’t spread your darkness to me. Well, I have wished every day since you took my baby that you had stayed away, because you managed to send me to pitch darkness in the end.’

Elsie or Kimberly or whoever she was, began to cry as she kept repeating how sorry she was, but Sally didn’t believe her crocodile tears. Seeing Kimberly get just desserts for what she’d put her through was the only apology she would accept.

‘You know, at least with Ian, there was an honesty about his cruelty. He showed me his true colours with his fists.’ Sally spat at her.

Kimberly winced at Sally’s words, but Sally wasn’t done yet. She continued, her voice cold and resolute, as she finally said the words that had been bubbling up inside her.

‘But you . . . you were sly, making me believe that you were on my side, that you were there for me. I often saw signs of your selfishness as we grew up in Sunshine House, but I never believed you could be this cruel.’ Sally strode to the telephone and picked up the receiver to call security. ‘I lost everything: my child, my home, my reputation . . . Well, now it’s your turn to face the consequences.’

BEFORE

July 1983

Kimberly

The Carousel, Spanish Coast

Kimberly’s heart raced as she sprinted across the salon floor, her handbag nearly causing her to trip. She called out desperately, ‘Wait, please. Wait.’

Having spent so long pretending to be someone she wasn’t, Kimberly had lost touch with her true identity. Now, standing face to face with her past, her mask finally dropping, she felt panic sweep over her. The thought of Sally calling security filled her with dread. If Robert was taken away from her, she knew she’d also lose Jason and Lily.

Sally’s expression was now hard and cold, unlike the kind and warm face Kimberly had known for years. But Kimberly knew she was to blame for this change in Sally’s demeanour.

But the thing was she wasn’t Elsie – not any more. She’d spent the past couple of years redefining herself. And she liked Kimberly in a way that she had never liked Elsie.

So, was it fair that she be held accountable for the part of her past that she’d left so far behind?

She needed to come up with a plan before it was too late and she lost everything.

‘You can’t call security,’ Kimberly said firmly, her hand shaking as she held it over Sally’s.

‘Give me one good reason,’ Sally countered.