My Girl (12 page)

Determination filled Chloe’s eyes and she nodded.

‘I love you,’ Paige said, embracing her quickly before she opened the door.

Her father’s body lay on the ground with a gunshot wound in his back, his blood disappearing between the cracks in the floorboards.

Chloe and the children rushed down the hallway, as Paige shut the door to the basement and locked it from the inside.

THIRTY-TWO

I nearly cried when I heard the voice of the 999 dispatcher on the phone. I told her who I was and what had happened, and to send help to the vicarage in the village. I told her Jacob was at the hospital – the missing boy was mine, and only ended the call when the woman at the other end promised that he would be safe until I got to him.

I ran down the lane with Mary held to me with my good arm, and John running beside me. We all had bare feet, and the gravel bit into our skin. Mary and John were too shocked to speak – Mary was too terrified to run, so I had to carry her. The fresh air and the wide openness of freedom must have felt so alien to them, as they had only ever known their world in the basement. John was crying from the gravel cutting his feet, but he knew we couldn’t stop running – he knew we were in danger. John’s first experience of the real world was pain and the darkness of night. Both he and Mary had seen my dead grandfather; their naked feet were stained with his blood. Mary clenched her eyes shut, too terrified to see the new world around her, but John’s eyes were as wide as they could be, as if he had to take it all in, however scary it was. Tears ran down my cheeks: not from fear, but from sheer relief; after ten miserable years, I was finally free – and Jacob was alive.

‘We just need to keep running, John, okay? You’re doing so well, I’m so proud of you.’

We ran down the lane, past the tall, looming trees that lined the driveway.

They don’t even know what trees are. They must be so confused.

My mother had sacrificed herself to save us. I almost ran back to the door to the basement, to beg her to come back, but I knew that I had to keep going to save my children. I had to get to Jacob.

The sound of sirens cried in the distance, and I sobbed with relief.

‘They’re coming, John! We’re almost there!’

John didn’t know who
they
were. Mary had no idea what was going on. But all of us knew that we had escaped the basement.

We’re free. We’re finally free.

THIRTY-THREE

Maxim stood at the bottom of the stairs, looking up at Paige.

She had to give Chloe and the children time to escape. It was her he wanted. Blood poured from his nose and stained his skin and clothes. She had never seen him so angry.

‘I just wanted us to be together,’ he said, walking up the stairs. ‘I just wanted to have my girl back. Why couldn’t you let me?’ He reached her, standing on the closest step to her, staring deep into her eyes, still towering over her.

‘Because you took
my
girl.’

She grabbed his broken nose and twisted it in her hand.

He screamed as she twisted the fractured cartilage. His hands snatched her throat and shoved her against the door. His hold was so tight that she couldn’t breathe. Her head felt as though it was going to explode. She tried to free herself, punching at his chest and ribs, and trying to grab his nose again, but he held her at arm’s length as he squeezed the life out of her.

She fumbled with the key in the lock on the door and turned it just as her vision began to fade. The door flew open.

As they fell to the floor Maxim lost his grip on her neck. She heaved for air, gasping and holding her swollen throat. Maxim lunged on top of her. They writhed around on the floor in their father’s blood, kicking and thrashing, right beside the body. She slammed the heel of her palm into Maxim’s broken nose, scrambled up to her feet as he fell back in agony, and ran towards the open front door and into the night.

He chased after her as she ran behind the house, away from the lane where she had told Chloe and the children to go, and headed for the graveyard.

Paige ran blindly through the night. Her bare feet slipped and slid on the dewy grass. Her twisted ankle was slowing her down; the pain was almost unbearable. She could hear Maxim’s heavy breathing behind her. He was getting closer, trying to grab at her T-shirt, his fingers grazing against the fluttering fabric.

Paige pushed through the pain and darted through the trees, between the dark trunks, stubbing her toes on their raised roots. She could see the light of the moon reflecting off the windows of the church. Her lungs and throat were burning from the fresh night air and the first bit of exercise she’d had in years. Her traumatised throat continued to swell, allowing less and less air into her lungs. If she kept running she would faint. Her whole body ached from fighting, running, lack of food and sleep. She couldn’t keep going for much longer.

Maxim was so close now she could feel the heat of his body and smell the blood from his broken nose.

He used all his weight and strength to shove her straight into a tree trunk. She saw nothing but darkness as she slammed into the tree and collapsed to the ground.

***

Paige faded in and out of consciousness and felt the scrape of gravel against her back. When her eyes opened briefly, she saw the stars in the night sky. She heard Maxim’s groans as he dragged her by her ankles. She coughed and choked every time she tried to breathe.

When she finally came to, she was inside the church, lying on the floor at the top of the aisle. Candles were lit, giving the church a warm glow, but it was freezing. Paige was alone.

Her whole body shook. Her head was aching so much that it brought tears to her eyes. But this wasn’t like a migraine: it was more like trauma to her brain. It was as though she could feel it swelling within her skull, pressing against the bone with nowhere to go. She opened her mouth to groan and blood poured from between her lips and splashed onto the floor. She brought her fingertips to her lips, which came away covered in dark, warm blood. With her tongue, she found a gap in her top row of teeth. She spat and spat, but hot blood kept filling her mouth.

She tried to stand but fell to her knees as everything began to spin. Crawling to the nearest pew, she watched her blood drip onto the stone floor. She climbed to her feet and dragged herself along the back of the pew, heading for the door. She pushed herself towards it, stumbled and fell against it, unable to stop everything from spinning. She leaned her head on the door, looked down to the floor, and vomited. She retched bloody bile, trying not to fall backwards. She attempted to open the door with her bloody hands, but couldn’t. Maxim had locked her inside.

‘Maxim?’ Her voice echoed in the tall church.

The organ began to play, each note blaring out. Paige retched again, leaning against the door. The sounds were like hammer blows to her skull. She sobbed and slapped her hands over her ears.

‘MAXIM, STOP! PLEASE STOP!’

The church fell silent, and she dared to open her eyes and uncover her ears.

Footsteps sounded up the aisle.

‘They’ll be checking the house, so we have a little time,’ Maxim said, his voice echoing from somewhere in the church.

The police. They will have saved Chloe and the children. Maybe they’ll get here in time to save me.

Maxim came into view. He was wearing his priest’s robes and his cheeks were shimmering from tears. Ryan’s gun was in his hand.

‘It wasn’t supposed to happen like this.’

He hooked his arms under hers and dragged her from the doorway.

‘We were supposed to have so much time together.’ He dragged her down the aisle; a tear fell from his chin and onto her face. ‘You would have been happy in the basement with your daughter, your grandchildren, and me.’

All Paige could see were her limp legs and the trail of her own blood. She had no energy to fight back. She could barely keep her eyes open.

‘But in death, we can be together forever.’

He is going to kill me.

‘Maxim, it’s over,’ she whispered, blood bubbling on her lips.

‘This life will be, but our love will never end. We will carry our love through to the other side, and spend every blissful moment together. You’ll see.’

She cried out as he dragged her up the stone steps to the sanctuary.

‘It will only hurt for a second, and then we’ll both be at peace.’

Maxim sat down with his back to the altar and rested her head on his lap. He looked down at her. She felt the coolness of the gun against her temple.

‘I’ll shoot you first, and then myself.’

‘You won’t go to heaven, Maxim,’ she whispered. ‘You will go to hell for what you’ve done.’

‘The Lord will forgive me.’

‘I won’t. Even when I’m dead.’

She heard him cock the gun.

‘Tell me you love me. Your last words should be that you love me.’

This is it. I’m going to die. He’d rather I die than be free.

‘Go to hell.’

A tear dropped from his face and onto hers.

‘I love you, Paige. You’ll always be my girl.’

The plaster cast cracked against the side of his head and sent white dust and splinters into the air. He dropped the gun as his hands rushed to protect his head.

Paige grabbed the gun and pulled the trigger.

Her brother’s face vanished before her eyes, and then everything went dark.

EPILOGUE

Paige and Chloe strolled down the path from the holiday home on the Dorset coast, their arms linked, while John and Mary ran ahead, their eyes fixed on the sparkling blue sea.

‘Be careful!’ Chloe called after them, watching them run down the sloping path that led to the sandy beach. They ignored her, too excited to slow down, the backs of their necks white from the sun cream slathered onto them. Jacob let go of Paige’s hand and chased after them, calling for them to wait.

‘Will I ever stop worrying about them?’ Chloe asked her mother.

‘Never. I didn’t stop worrying about you, even when I thought you were dead.’

Their therapists had recommended the summer getaway. The children needed time to play, to be free, before embarking on their next big journey: school.
Greta and Richard had planned to come on the trip to the south coast, but had both fallen ill with the flu. Ryan’s parents had become like her own in the last year; she couldn’t have done this without them.

Maxim had left Jacob outside the hospital when he knew he could do nothing else to save him. After Chloe and Jacob were reunited in the hospital, the media went crazy. Helicopters circled above like vultures and barriers kept the reporters fifty feet from the hospital doors. Following their release from hospital, the family were taken into hiding to recover without the world’s eyes watching through camera lenses.

Paige had been seeing Robin Higgins, the therapist she had fled from. Given her history, she knew why shrinks scared her now. They had examined her for two long years. Robin helped her deal with her addictions, and she had been clean for almost a year. He helped her to work through the memories of the sexual and mental abuse she suffered during her childhood, and to understand how her brain had protected her for so many years by hiding the memories away. Psychogenic Amnesia and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder had forced the memories deep within her psyche, so when she had been released from the institution at the age of eighteen, she’d had no recollection of what had put her there.

If she had remembered what had happened to her, she would have never have let Maxim anywhere near Chloe. Paige still wondered why she hadn’t sensed that her daughter was hidden beneath his floorboards: shouldn’t mother’s intuition have told her something?

Maxim had ruined her life. The childhood abuse had rewired her brain and had distorted her view of the world. Even after she was free of him, she still hadn’t made any friends; she had isolated herself because it was all she knew.

Now he was gone, and the truth was out, she could finally begin to heal. She may not have done the right thing when she had the chance, but she did in the end: Maxim was dead. He couldn’t hurt them anymore.

‘I envy them,’ Chloe said, her red hair dancing in the wind. ‘They have come so far in the last year, and I’m still so stuck.’

‘Children are different, Chloe. They’re more adaptable than adults. And they didn’t face all of the abuse you did. You’ve accomplished much more than you think. You surprise me every day.’

Paige and Chloe had only just stopped sharing a bed at night. Their therapists had decided it was time. Neither of them wanted it, but they both knew deep down that it couldn’t go on forever. They left their bedroom doors open at night, and had their beds facing the doorways, so they could look up and check that the other was still there, that they hadn’t been separated again.

The ASBO tag around Paige’s right ankle had been removed a week before their trip to Dorset. The judge had ordered her to wear it for over six months, and she continued to have monthly blood tests to prove that she wasn’t drinking.

‘How does it feel?’ Paige asked as she looked at her daughter, the sun on her milky skin and the sea breeze playing with her hair. Her hair had been cut to her shoulders, just like she’d wanted all those years ago before she was taken.

My girl is so beautiful.

‘It’s as though I have died and gone to heaven.’

To their left they could see the sprawling cliffs and a ribbon of yellow beach. In front of them was the horizon, where the dark sea stretched out to meet the bright blue sky.

‘Let’s run,’ Paige said.

‘What?’

‘Run in the open, in the breeze, in the sun. You’re free, Chloe. You need to feel it.’

Chloe looked cautious.

‘Come on. I bet I can beat you to the bottom.’

Paige ran down the path, feeling a smile spread across her face. She turned to see Chloe running too with a smile on her face. They ran down the slanted path that zigzagged down the hill until they reached the hot, yellow sand and fell onto their backs, panting and laughing.

‘I told you I’d win.’

‘You got a head start,’ Chloe replied, her chest rising and falling fast.

They looked up at the clear blue sky, and heard the children running towards them. They sat up and greeted them.

‘Sit down and take your shoes off,’ Paige said, patting the sand beside her. ‘You need to feel the sand between your toes.’

Paige and Chloe took off their shoes, and the children copied them, Jacob needing help with his. As they felt the sand between their toes, the children beamed with such surprise that it brought tears to Paige’s eyes.

‘Shall we race to the water?’ Chloe said.

‘You four race, I’ll judge. I’m knackered after winning the last one.’

‘You’re just scared I’ll beat you this time.’ Chloe laughed and got to her feet. ‘Right, you three, ready?’

Paige counted down from three and watched them run down the beach towards the sparkling water.

Maybe I am dead,
she thought to herself.
Maybe this
is
heaven.

After a lifetime of misery, she was finally happy. She watched her daughter and three grandchildren run into the cold sea and gasp at the chill; they kicked and splashed water at each other, smiling the entire time.

Paige rested her hand beside her, and looked to the empty space. Ryan should have been with her, witnessing the beauty that she was so lucky to see. That was how she knew that she wasn’t dead; if this was heaven, if it really did exist, he would have been there with them – wasn’t that how heaven worked?

Every night, before she fell asleep, she always had the same thought:
If only Ryan hadn’t killed himself, he would have been able to see his daughter again.

She never discovered who it was that Ryan had wanted dead. She liked to think that he had suspected Maxim, that he had got it right, but that he couldn’t go through with killing him. Instead, he had ended his own life, unable to face the cruel world anymore. Sometimes, she worried that perhaps Ryan had killed the wrong man, and then killed himself for the error. She often dreamt that Maxim was responsible for Ryan’s death somehow. But she couldn’t think of that anymore. Maxim was dead – she had stopped him. She was finally free of him: they all were. She had to leave her past behind and focus on the present, her family, their future.

She looked out at Chloe and the children as they splashed about in the water, and realised how lucky she was. Chloe looked to her mother on the beach and beckoned for her to join them, and the children shouted out for her.

Paige wiped her cheeks from tears, got to her feet, and raced towards the water.