Page 61 of Silent Scream
‘We could not care more deeply if you were our biological child and we will never try and change you. We love you just the way you are, okay?’
Kim nodded as the words brought tears to her eyes. Without her knowledge this middle-aged couple had touched her heart and offered the first foundations of stability she had ever known.
Two days later, Keith and Erica were killed in a motorway pile-up.
Later she found out that they’d been on their way home from an appointment with a solicitor who specialised in adoption law.
Within an hour of the accident Kim was packed up and returned to the social care system like an unwanted package. There was no celebration, no fanfare upon her return. No acknowledgement of her three-year hiatus. A nod here and there and the latest spare bed.
Kim wiped away a tear that had escaped and travelled down her cheek. This was the problem with journeys to her past. Any happy memory led to tragedy and loss. The reason she didn’t visit all that often.
The aroma of the coffee pot called from the kitchen. She pushed herself to her feet and took her mug for a refill.
As she poured the liquid into the mug her eyes moved across the vast collection of cookery books that lined her kitchen shelves.
Suddenly the words that were twenty-one years too late escaped from between her lips.
‘Erica, I loved you too.’
Thirty-One
Nicola Adamson tooka sip of Southern Comfort. Normally, she didn’t touch alcohol while she was working but tonight she could not shake the stiffness in her bones. Her joints had been fused together and her muscles injected with cement.
The atmosphere in the club had been electric. A group of Swiss bankers had landed, flush with excitement and cash. The music was thumping and the laughter was infectious. The rest of the girls were busy mingling with the patrons, their smiles genuine and open. All the signs dictated it would be an enjoyable night for all. It was the kind of atmosphere whereby her work required no effort at all. Usually.
Nicola knew she was struggling to throw off the argument with her sister. It had started over something so inconsequential she couldn’t even recall but had developed into a massive row that had stopped short of physical blows.
Beth had predictably used the guilt card, quoting what Nicola had and what Beth had not. Eventually Beth had left the flat in a fit of rage and had not returned before Nicola left for work.
Although Beth was an adult and perfectly able to take care of herself Nicola knew she was still the big sister; the protector. Despite the animosity between them she was worried and she couldn’t help it.
‘Hey, Nic, you okay?’
She jumped slightly. ‘I’m fine, Lou.’
The club owner was an ex-wrestler, which was not disguised by the shirt and suit he wore every night to work.
It was his venue and one he’d started from scratch. Lou had had a vision of an upmarket club where attractive ladies danced for the enjoyment of customers. He’d had three principles from day one and they applied to the employees as stringently as the patrons: no nudity, no touching and no disrespect.
For his employees there was a fourth rule; no drugs. He himself chose to oversee the implementation of the first three and a monthly drugs test took care of the fourth.
His principles formed his business plan and his mission statement and he always led by example. No girl that Nicola knew of had ever been made to feel uncomfortable in Lou’s presence.
‘You’re not yourself tonight, girl?’
She considered lying but her boss knew her too well.
‘Just a bit distracted, Lou.’
‘Do you want to work the bar?’
Nicola shook her head, nodded and then sighed. Honestly, she didn’t know what she wanted to do.
He indicated for her to follow him through the door behind the bar. Once in the relative peace of the corridor he stopped walking.
Mary Ellen, an ex-model from San Diego, squeezed between them. Lou waited until she was out of earshot.
‘This got anything to do with your sister?’
