Page 34 of Take My Crown

“You never did tell me what you wanted for your birthday,” my father says. “So I took the liberty of arranging a couple of little surprises for you. Here’s the first.”

He nods to Isabella, who brings over a top of the line iPad.

“Thanks, Dad,” I say dutifully. “This will be really useful for my schoolwork.”

“Oh, that’s not the gift.” He looks smug, as Isabella swiped the iPad to access the home screen then tapped on the Zoom icon.

“Katy!” I could cry with happiness when I see my foster mother’s face appear on the screen.

“Ivy! At last! I’ve been waiting for you for ages!” I glance over at Isabella, who shrugs apologetically. Now I feel awful. I kept Katy waiting because I wanted to show my father he can’t control me.

“You know how teenagers are, Katy,” my father says, taking the iPad from Isabella so he can address my foster mother. “You can barely drag them out of bed for school at the best of times. Now I’ll have to ask you to keep this relatively brief–I have some other things planned for Ivy today, but I knew she wouldn’t want her birthday to pass without speaking to you.”

He hand the iPad over to me. “You’ve got ten minutes,” he tells me, before mouthing ‘behave’.

I don’t need to be told by this point. Now isn’t the time to make my move.

“Hey, Katy,” I say.

“Ivy,” Katy sighs, her bright eyes watching me. “Why didn’t you tell me you’d found your father?”

I shrug, trying to think of an explanation which might make sense of everything that has happened without giving away the truth.

Luckily, Katy saved me the trouble. “Your dad’s been telling me all about how you’d been searching for him online and when you found him you didn’t want to tell me because you were afraid of hurting me. You silly thing. You should have known you can trust me. If I have known you were looking for your dad, I’d have helped you.”

“Yeah, well, I have been disappointed before,” I shrug. “I suppose I didn’t want to get my hopes up. If I told you what was really going on and then failed to find him, I didn’t want to have to deal with your sympathy as well as being disappointed.”

“I understand,” Katy nods. “But you should know you can always come to me for help, no matter what. You’re eighteen now, but just because you’re no longer officially in my care doesn’t mean you’re not my daughter. You’ll always be special to me.”

“Thanks, Katy.” My voice catches in my throat, tears threatening to spill out. “You’ve no idea how much that means to me. You’ve been the best foster parent ever.”

“I try,” she says. “I’ve got another child coming to stay with me in a couple weeks. They’ve had a really rough upbringing so I’m hoping I can give them some stability.”

As Katy tells me about everything going on in her life, I wonder whether I would ever see her again. She has been amazing, but part of what makes a good foster parent is the ability not to become too emotionally engaged because the children you are looking after can be taken back to their parents at any time. Much as I knew she meant what she said, I was under no illusion. Now I was too old for the care system, her focus is going to shift to the next child who came to her and the next and the next. Soon, I would just be another one in a long line of children she has looked after for a while.

As if she can read my thoughts, Katy suddenly says, “You should come and visit. I think it would be good for Clara to meet you, see that it’s not all bad being fostered. Perhaps in a few weeks after she’s had a chance to settle in?”

“Maybe.” Out of the corner of my eye, I catch my dad frowning. “But I’ll have to see. Things are pretty busy here with my A levels and everything.”

“Oh yes. You’ve gone to school. How is it?”

“It’s okay,” I shrug. “I mean, it’s a school. They’re all pretty much the same, aren’t they?”

“And your dad tells me you’re Head Girl. That’s amazing!”

“It’s not as impressive as it sounds,” I say.

“Don’t put yourself down like that, Ivy,” Katy tells me. “You always did have a low opinion of yourself. I’m glad you’re in an environment where you can thrive now. From what your dad tells me, he’s really supportive of you. I’m so glad you’ve found him.”

“Me too,” I lie, more because I know it’s what Katy needs to hear than because I mean it.

“I’m sorry to break up the reunion, but I’ve got some more surprises for Ivy,” says my dad. Maybe my less than enthusiastic lie annoyed him. “Say your goodbyes.”

“Have a wonderful birthday,” says Katy. “Let me have your address so I can send over the present I bought for you.”

My father reaches over and taps the button to end the call.

“It looks like the internet dropped out,” he shrugs. “That is very good, Ivy. I am most impressed by how you dealt with that call. Continue to behave and we can make them a regular event if you like. Would you like that?”

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