Page 97 of Then She Vanished

The ten minutes it took for Elissa and Orla to reach them seemed like forever. Ruth couldn’t stop biting her nails.

Jacob stepped outside the room and waited for Gina. Orla nodded and smiled as she let Elissa stand in the doorway.

‘Mum,’ she said, her voice quivering. Elissa pushed past Gina and ran straight over to her mother, then hugged her close. They both began to sob as they parted and stared at each other.

‘I’ve missed you so much. I never gave up hope that I’d hear from you again.’ She stroked her daughter’s hair as Elissa sat on the bed next to her. ‘Look at you, all grown up.’

Gina discreetly left the room and closed the door. She and Orla met Jacob by the nurses’ station. He had a tissue in his hand, was dabbing at his eye. ‘I err, think I… allergies. It’s my allergies.’

Wiping her eyes with her sleeve, Gina shook her head. ‘I think my allergies are playing up, too. I guess we should get back and deal with the paperwork.’

Her personal phone vibrated once. She had to deal with Pete.

SIXTY-FOUR

GIRL

I manage to draw in a breath. My baby is crying in my arms. Our baby – Luna. The light has gone out and all I see is the glow of the red light above. I’m too weak to protest as the woman takes my baby from my arms. The agony running through me is too much to bear. My breaths come fast and my heart seems to be pounding like it’s trying to burst out of me. I’m so damp underneath and still I keep bleeding.

As I go to stand, I collapse onto the floor next to my bed and reach out, all my energy going on dragging myself forward a couple of centimetres.

‘Albie,’ I scream, hoping that he will come. I need a hospital. Agony tears through me. I’m hot and burning up. ‘My baby, I want my baby.’ Maybe the woman has come to help me.

She kneels and I see tears in her eyes, but I don’t see my baby.

‘Who are you?’ I just about manage to ask. ‘Are you here to help me?’

The woman nods. ‘I’m Elissa. I’m going to help you escape this hell you’ve been living in. It happened to me, too.’

I’m so confused, but at the same time I’m happy. I need her to get me out of here and take me and Luna to a hospital.Without help, I will lose too much blood and die. She pulls a phone out and she’s sending a message. Help is on its way.

I lie back, relief flooding through me while wondering why her tears are bouncing off my cheeks.

Just as I feel secure that I’m about to be saved, a pillow is thrust over my face. Panicking, I try to hit out, but my weak limbs are no match for her strong body. She presses it hard and I fight for what seems like forever, but nothing gets that pillow off me.

It’s no good. I want to keep fighting, but I have nothing left. I only hope she doesn’t hurt my baby. I feel her hot breath say something in my ear. As the world goes black, those words stay with me.

‘You’re free from it all now. This life isn’t worth it. You don’t have to suffer any more. I saved you.’

SIXTY-FIVE

Gina played the next four messages on her hands-free as she drove home in the darkness, along the country lanes. All Pete kept repeating was for her to come home immediately, but not saying why. A sickness began to radiate from her core as she pulled up.

Her house was in darkness. She wondered if Pete had found a way in again. As she opened the door, she heard her cat darting out of the cat flap, and she knew. ‘Pete,’ she called.

She carried on walking through her lounge and into the kitchen. That’s when she saw him through the glass in her kitchen window, sitting on an old plastic chair amongst her overgrown garden. She unlocked the door and he entered. He placed his laptop on the kitchen table next to his phone. ‘What’s happening?’

He exhaled sharply. ‘I stopped it. I’ve taken it down. Look.’ He opened his laptop. ‘Sorry, I took the liberty of logging on to your Wi-Fi. The site is down. It looks like Stephen has been working with someone to get it back up, all with the aim of destroying you somehow.’

‘Someone else, who?’

He shrugged. ‘It’s only a guess, but I don’t think Stephen would have the knowledge for all this.’

Gina frowned. ‘All the messengers?’

‘I’ve sent a virus to the email addresses of all the users who have an account. They’ll probably just think that’s what it was all about. It’s over, Gina.’

She pulled out her own phone and tried to log in to Men-R-Takin-It-Back, but it was gone. ‘My boss received a phone message.’

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