up for everything.’
‘I didn’t know it would be so awful, Carly. I was terrified but I thought if I told you what was going on then we’d all be separated and the trauma of being tied up and shoved in the van would be for nothing. I didn’t know what to—’
‘You should have told us.’
‘I was eight! And if I’m honest, there… there was a part of me that… that was scared of him. Although he never threatened me, it was unspoken that if I ever told, he’d do something bad to me. And… and the thought that my own father might… might…’ Marie dissolved into tears.
Carly thought about how betrayed she had felt when she found out Simon was behind their fake kidnapping. How hurt and unloved – but ultimately she wasn’t his biological daughter. How must Marie have felt all these years, knowing that her natural dad had set her up? Carly felt herself softening.
‘I think you should have told me – someone – but it can’t have been easy for you knowing your dad was prepared to put you and Leah through such an ordeal… What?’ Marie had turned away, hanging her head as she swiped furiously at her cheeks.
‘Marie?’ Carly touched her sister’s shoulders. ‘What is it?’ But then it hit her.
The truth.
‘Oh God.’ Carly clasped her hands over her mouth. She was going to be sick. She shook her head from side to side. Marie sobbed, knowing that Carly had worked it out. Carly tried to breathe but her throat was burning with bile, nausea rising up as she kept swallowing it down. ‘Oh God.’ She couldn’t find any other words. She sank to a crouch. Her head in her hands. She was going to faint. ‘Oh God.’
It was all so blindingly obvious. The way there were only two men to snatch three girls. The insubstantial amount of food. One mattress. The single blanket. A lonely teddy bear. She began to cry.
Minutes passed until Carly raised her tear-stained face. Marie’s expression confirmed what she already knew but she had to hear her say it. ‘It was only ever meant to be me that was taken, wasn’t it?’ Carly had thought she’d closed herself off to hurt, but the pain she felt was unimaginable. She wiped her nose with her sleeve. ‘You and Leah? You were never part of the plan.’ She thought back to when they were reunited at the police station. Simon balancing a twin on each hip – thank God, thank God, thank God.
‘I was supposed to get you out of the garden and into the alley where I knew they’d be waiting. I threw the ball over but you wouldn’t fetch it. I didn’t know what to do when you made us go inside the house for tea so I pretended I’d left my fleece outside, opened the gate and let Bruno out. You were supposed to go and look that way on your own but—’
‘I had Leah with me, and you didn’t want to put her through it.’ Carly gave a wry smile, although inside her heart was breaking. ‘That’s understandable, she is your sister.’
‘You’re my sister too,’ Marie said. ‘But yes, when you took Leah I panicked and followed you. When the men grabbed you both I couldn’t let you go through it alone. I thought… I thought I could make it fun.’
It’s a game, isn’t it? Marie had kept saying. Perhaps she really believed that, Carly thought. Perhaps that’s the only way her mind could cope with it.
But Carly’s mind couldn’t cope with what she was hearing now. She just couldn’t process it all. Her body was ice. Her teeth rattled together.
‘Carly, please. Now you know we can—’
‘There is no we.’ Carly picked up her bag from the floor.
‘Carly, please don’t leave.’
Carly turned to look at the girl she once thought of as her sister. The desperation on her face. She sighed. ‘Get your coat. Your coming with me.’
‘Where?’ Marie’s face creased with anxiety.
‘To the cashpoint. I’ll give you some money. Not enough, but some, but we’re not doing the TV interview. We have to think of Leah.’
It took three attempts for Marie to push her arm into her sleeve, she was trembling so hard. ‘Thanks. Afterwards, can you drop me somewhere?’
‘Where?’
Marie told her. Carly wished she had never asked.
Chapter Fifty-Five
Leah
Now
Archie is missing.
I don’t stop to lock the back door as I run through the kitchen and grab my mobile.
Archie is missing.
If I call the police now they’ll want