Missy leant on the broom, suddenly overcome with exhaustion. Normally she found sweeping therapeutic which was fortunate in her line of work. But tonight, the broom was lead in her hands and she kept noticing stray hairs that the bristles of the broom had missed.
All that lying to those two lovely women! It was totally exhausting and guilt-inducing. How could she have possibly imagined that she could cope with this charade, physically or emotionally?
At first it had seemed easy. Two months ago now, the day Jamie dropped that brightly coloured bit of paper in the salon, Missy thought all her Christmases had come at once.
‘Jamie, Jamie, you dropped something,’ Missy had called after her from the door of the salon. But Jamie was already in her car and roaring off into the traffic. Missy studied the invitation.
Ava’s turning 5! it exclaimed in big pink letters, festooned with balloons. Ava was the niece Jamie had raved about. There was a time and a date and a mobile phone number for Lisa—the sister Jamie had also raved about for her amazing mothering skills. The two had a special bond, Jamie had explained, because of their parents dying and Lisa assuming the guardianship role. ‘She got me out of the group home. I’ll never be able to thank her enough for that. The care system in this state is seriously broken,’ she had railed. ‘I mean, I know a lot of foster carers are genuinely amazing, but some are seriously dodgy. I mean, could you put a child at risk like that? I couldn’t even do it to a pet.’
That’s who Ellie needs to be with. That’s who’ll keep her safe.
Missy checked the date for the party—February 27. Kyle would get out of jail on the first of March. The timing was perfect. A party would be the ideal cover for dropping Ellie straight into the Wheeldons’ life. Of course, there’d be hiccups. The Wheeldons would be shocked, no doubt. They were so normal and what Missy was about to do was so strange. Then there was Ellie. How would she convince her daughter to go along with it all?
For a start, she needed to know more about Lisa Wheeldon. Was she really the mother that Jamie claimed? Missy had to see for herself before she could entrust her with her most precious possession. From idle salon chit-chat with Jamie, she knew that Lisa had two daughters—Ava was at St John’s and Jemima was in pre-school. Lisa was a self-employed bookkeeper because it gave her the flexibility she needed to be there for the kids. It was good information, but not enough. Missy needed proof.
She soon had it. With small children, a mother tended to be strikingly predictable in her routines and Lisa was no exception. Morning was school drop-off. Afternoons were pick-ups. Three days a week they went to the playground near St John’s. Fridays were swimming lessons for both girls. Two days, Jemima was at pre-school. And on the other three days, Lisa kept her busy with gymbaroo and art class and supermarket shopping. After a couple of weeks of watching them, Missy came to realise that it wasn’t necessarily the routine that was important, though that would be helpful to Missy’s plan, it was the small moments that gave her pause for hope—the way Lisa constantly showered her girls with kisses and always knelt down to talk to them. The way she held their hands so firmly when they crossed roads. The way she’d spoken calmly but firmly to Ava when she’d pinched Jemima and made her cry. But, moreover, it was simply the way she looked at her girls with so much love in her eyes. It moved Missy to tears, for she recognised it as being the same way she looked at Ellie. Yes, putting her daughter into this woman’s hands was the right thing, but asking her to care for Ellie wasn’t the way to do it—no loving mother in their right mind would agree to take in a stranger’s child if there was the merest hint of danger. Missy couldn’t give Lisa a chance to say no. Besides, the risk to the Wheeldon family was minimal, Missy would see to that. What was the saying—it was better to seek forgiveness than ask permission? This was the way it had to be done.
Missy slumped into one of the salon chairs and startled at the pale, platinum blonde staring back at her. The colour wasn’t her. It wasn’t her at all, and as soon as all of this was over she would be going straight back to her natural brown.
She took a breath. O’Dea said they were close. Just a couple more days, he reckoned. But in the meantime, Missy wasn’t to worry. They had Kyle and his cronies under 24/7 surveillance. He wouldn’t be going anywhere.
That might have been comforting for O’Dea, but as far as Missy was concerned, she wouldn’t relax until Kyle was behind bars. While ever he was free, he was a risk to her and Ellie. Her daughter was safer with the Wheeldons, for now. But how long would it be? Anyone could see that Lisa Wheeldon was getting attached. Had Missy’s plan gone too well? How would Lisa manage when Missy decided it was time to re-enter her daughter’s life?
As she stared into the mirror, it occurred to her that in giving her precious little girl to a near stranger, she had thought only of her own sacrifice. Not once had she thought how that stranger would feel when it was time to give her back.