Joe offered, ‘once I’ve checked on Courtney. If you want me to, that is?’
She nodded. She wasn’t sure whether that was a good idea or a bad one, but the thought of being on her own suddenly scared her. ‘I …’ she started, about to say that she did want him to, and then stopped, realising that Sherry was in the hall.
‘Bye, Laura,’ the woman called. ‘Do try and eat something, darling.’ There was no answer from upstairs.
‘I told you this would happen.’ Sherry’s tones grew louder as she approached the front door. ‘We should have nipped this in the bud.’
‘Perhaps it’s time to stop trying to stifle her,’ Grant suggested, his tone weary.
‘And what would that achieve? You really do amaze me sometimes, Grant. Do you think it’s just myself I’m worried about?’
Joe and Sarah exchanged wary glances.
‘No,’ Grant said eventually, with a discernible sigh. ‘But you can’t keep doing this, Sherry. Maybe we should think about telling her—’
‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ Sherry hissed, and swung the front door open.
Not wanting her to think they’d been listening, Sarah improvised, wrapping her arms around Joe’s neck and yanking him to her.
Sherry huffed past as they kissed. ‘Your child has just woken up,’ she imparted. ‘You might do well to keep an eye on him.’
Thirty-Nine
Laura
Bile rising in her throat, Laura watched from the bedroom window as her mother strode down the garden path, Grant trailing in her wake. He would always be there, always in Sherry’s shadow, always in her debt. She’d guilted him into marrying her. When he’d wanted to leave, she’d guilted him into staying. Laura had no doubt that that was why she’d done the inconceivably wicked thing she had. That had been her aim, to keep a man who was desperate to walk away from her chained to her forever. She would always claim she was protecting him, protecting her daughter. She was a liar. Everything that spilled from her Dior-coated blood-red slash of a mouth was lies. Laura was sure she hadn’t been sleepwalking that long-ago dark night. She’d taken the sedative her mother had offered her before going to bed. She recalled doing that. Sherry always made sure she took her sedatives. Sometimes she didn’t swallow them, aware that her mother often didn’t go to Jacob if he woke in the night. Always leaving him to … Jacob’s sobs had woken her. He’d been crying. She could hear him. She heard him now, whimpering like an abandoned puppy.
The crying had stopped. Suddenly there was nothing but the rain drumming like fingernails against the windows, the wind whispering through the trees: You have to save him. The memory floated back, as others had, hazy and incomplete but slowly forming a picture. Ironically, it was her mother’s latest attempts to sabotage any life she might have that had triggered them. How horrified would Sherry be if she knew that?
She wanted to destroy Laura’s relationship, to keep her from forming relationships, from trusting herself enough to believe in herself. She’d achieved her aim. She’d poisoned Sarah’s mind against her. Her policeman boyfriend would investigate her. Steve would leave her.
Hearing the bedroom door open, she wrapped her arms more tightly around herself, trying to stop the incessant shaking. She continued to watch as Grant drove off, her mother’s mouth moving animatedly as she berated him – for failing to successfully do his part in keeping their secret safe, Laura assumed. She should have found the courage to challenge her. Right there in the garden in front of witnesses. She didn’t doubt that Sherry’s wrath would have exploded. She would have done more than allude to the fact that her daughter wasn’t responsible for her actions on the night Jacob had disappeared. She would have tried to convince everyone that she’d been responsible for what happened to the beautiful little boy Laura now knew she searched for in her dreams. But now her memories were returning, Sherry might just have been caught out in her lies.
‘How are you?’ Steve asked tentatively. Sensing him right behind her, Laura tensed. It wasn’t his fault. He’d done nothing to deserve any of this, but she couldn’t turn to him, seek the comfort in his embrace she desperately needed. She couldn’t offer him reassurances or explanations. There was no way to do that without revealing everything. If she stayed here, Steve and Ollie would both be in danger. If she left, though, her mother might still hold the threat of harming them over her. If