stayed in the car. Luc was just starting to stir. She lifted him out of the bag and cradled him in her arms. His little fists were screwed up tight together and his tiny perfect lips were opening and closing, as he turned his head this way and that rooting for food. She was going to help him grow bigger and stronger. Protect him always.
There was one last bottle in the bag that would have to satisfy him until they got home. She un-capped the top and put the teat to his mouth.
‘There we are. Who’s a hungry little boy?’ she asked, stroking his hair with her free hand.
She didn’t see Mike come back. She didn’t notice him until he’d opened the door and dropped two paper cups of coffee to the deck of the boat.
‘Emma… what’s going on?’
He’d gone ashen. The tan he had built up over the last three weeks had faded in an instant. She stared at her dad, not knowing what to say. She had planned to tell him when they got home, obviously, but she had been counting on a couple of hours on the boat and another few to get home before she had to face the music.
‘I wanted to tell you, Dad. But… I was so frightened,’ she blurted out, tears forming.
‘Oh my God, love. I don’t know what to say. I…’ Mike started, holding onto the frame of the car door for support.
‘I’m so sorry, Dad. I knew you’d be disappointed and I was ashamed. I… I had him yesterday, at the campsite and…’
‘Emma… my poor sweet girl,’ Mike said, shaking his head as emotion overrode him.
‘I didn’t want to make a fuss… I didn’t want to spoil the holiday,’ she continued, the tears falling. The emotion was real. She was grieving so many things. Her mother, Guy, the loss of her old future because of the hand Fate had dealt her. The future she’d chosen to take instead for this baby’s sake.
‘Didn’t want to make a fuss?! It’s a baby, love. You’ve had a baby,’ Mike stated. He put his hand to his head. ‘How did I miss this? And what do we do now?’
‘I just want to go home.’
‘I don’t think it works like that, love. I mean he doesn’t have any passport or papers or anything. What about when we get to the border in England?’
‘He’s been in my bag,’ Emma told him as if it was the most normal sentence in the world to utter.
Mike shook his head again and she could feel his disappointment radiating off of him. She could tell he was seeing his retirement with Marilyn slipping out of sight.
‘Oh, love,’ Mike said, sighing.
‘I know what you’re thinking, Dad, but it doesn’t have to mean the end of my plans for university. I can go later, in a few years,’ Emma said, adjusting Luc’s bottle and making him suckle louder.
‘Love, why didn’t you come to me? At the beginning when you first found out?’
She obviously didn’t have an answer so she shrugged, hoping it would be enough.
‘Who’s the father? Does he know?’
She offered another shrug, focused her eyes on Luc.
‘Does this little one have a name?’ Mike asked.
Emma looked up then and caught the compassion mixed with shock; saw the chance to grab onto.
‘Dominic. His name’s Dominic.’
Chapter Sixty-Three
Present Day
‘I hear they’ve rounded them all up,’ Ally announced, pouring Emma a glass of wine.
‘What?’
‘The paedophiles. The ring leader’s been remanded and the others have been bailed pending the trial,’ she continued.
‘Guy and I try not to talk about that. He has to appear at the trial to give evidence but until then we’re not thinking about it. We have a wedding to plan,’ Emma reminded.
‘I know that! Was that a not-so-subtle hint that I ought to be arranging the hen party?’ Ally asked.
‘Not at all. That’s the part I’m dreading because I remember the last one you made me go to that you arranged. Tequila, cowboy hats and glow-in-the-dark thongs,’ Emma said, laughing.
‘Great wasn’t it?’
‘You had more fun than the bride.’
‘Ah, organiser’s prerogative.’
Emma laughed.
‘So, listen, miss, now I have you on your own, what I want to know is, if Guy is Dominic’s father why couldn’t you have just come out and told me? I mean you told me he wasn’t… categorically,’ Ally said.
Emma felt the loaded stare but was unmoved. She’d wanted to at least tell Dominic the truth, well a version of the truth someone his age could understand, but Guy had been adamant.