have stolen someone else’s child, but I didn’t know what to think now. We’d become strangers to each other.
And that was how we parted, with strangers’ distant nods.
* * *
—
AT THE LAMBERTS’, THEO eagerly runs to push the intercom button, then bounds up the steps without waiting for it to be answered. I’d been expecting Lucy, or possibly Tania, so it’s a shock to be met by Miles himself, pulling open the door in a T-shirt and jeans.
“Maddie. How nice to see you.”
“Fuck off, Miles.”
Miles grins. “Please—I must ask you to moderate your language in front of the children.” Theo had briefly rugby-tackled Miles’s legs before running into the house, so there was absolutely no chance he could have heard.
He eyes me with amusement. Annoyingly, it makes him even more good-looking. “It’s fun, this, isn’t it?” he says cheerfully. “Makes life so much more interesting.”
“What are you doing here? I thought you’d be at work.”
“I might ask you the same question. My answer, by the way, is that I’m taking time off to be with my children. It’s so important for both parents to be actively involved, don’t you think?”
“Again, fuck off.” I wonder if he knows Pete has been made to move out. I suspect he does—some weaselly back channel of information, lubricated by money. “And actually, I’m on my way to work now.” I hesitate. “I need to ask if you’ll have Theo until a bit later for the next few days. Say, four o’clock. I can’t really get away any earlier.”
“And if I said—how did you put it just now?—‘Fuck off, Maddie’?” He waits, but I can tell he’s only playing with me. Eventually he sighs happily. “Of course. It will be a pleasure to have my son with us for longer during the day.”
As I go down the steps, he adds, “It’ll be good preparation for when he moves in permanently. I’m sure the court will see it that way, too. Particularly when they learn that it was your toe-rag of a partner who stole him from us. Who would have thought Perfect Pete had it in him to do a thing like that, Maddie? Perhaps he’s not quite the man you thought he was.”
Again I don’t rise to it, although I’m shaking with fury. As I turn the corner he calls after me, “I’ll see you at the hearing. On Tuesday. Make sure you turn up this time, won’t you?”
* * *
—
I’D MEANT TO GO straight on to work, but I go home instead. I’m amazed by how focused I am. At the Lamberts’ house, listening to Miles’s taunts, I’d felt adrenaline coursing through me, the ancient fight-or-flight reflex prickling my skin, blood pounding in my ears.
The CAFCASS letter is waiting on the mat. I open it and read the revised list of recommendations with a mixture of anger and resignation. So now Lyn has me in her sights, as well as Pete. I scrunch the letter up and let it fall to the floor. As if in a dream, I pull two big suitcases out of the understairs cupboard where they’re kept. In Theo’s room I work quickly, transferring clothes—five T-shirts, five pairs of jeans, ten pairs of socks—into the first case. All so neatly ironed and folded by Pete, still smelling of the eco-friendly fabric conditioner he uses.
For my own suitcase, I just throw in a few things from my wardrobe.
The passports are downstairs, in the desk drawer. I check mine’s in date. The photograph shows me with long, unstyled hair down to my chest, an unflattering center parting falling around a fresh, innocent face. So innocent, from a different time. And Theo’s—he was less than a year old when his was taken. Incredible to think he’ll be eleven when this passport expires.
But of course, he won’t be. Miles will get his surname changed to Lambert; a new, British passport issued.
I check Skyscanner. There’s a Cathay Pacific flight leaving tonight via Hong Kong. One-way tickets are only six hundred pounds. In a little over forty-eight hours, I could be waking up in my old bedroom at home with Theo beside me. The sun will be shining, my parents will be overjoyed. Dad will be making plans, taking care of things. If I leave it even a few more days it’ll be too late: At the hearing, the court will undoubtedly agree to Miles’s request and issue an order stopping me and Theo from traveling.