Just My Luck by Adele Parks (best romance books of all time txt) 📗

edge, like bookends with invisible fat volumes between us. We are giving each other space, and I’m able to hide the three-million-pound gift to Toma in that space. Luckily, the police are more tenacious in the matter of investigating the kidnap and trying to recover our ten-million ransom money than Jake is about understanding how our bank balance came to net out as it has. I understand the police carried out a forensic search of the place where Emily was found and all the surrounding area. The criminals apparently weren’t quite as professional as we first assumed: they have left a raft of physical evidence. Fingerprints on casually discarded food tins and drink cans, tire tracks that will help the police identify what vehicle they used to abduct her, and even a jacket from which they can collect DNA. Besides this physical evidence, the police have fraud experts pursuing the paper trail. They took our phones, and I presume they might have ways of tracing calls that we thought were impossible. We only had our phones returned today. I’ve been managing without one; it’s actually quite liberating. As long as my kids were close beside me, I found it peaceful to be out of reach, off-grid. It gave me some thinking time. Jake disagreed; he was really narky about giving his up. Apparently, he can’t go without a phone for a matter of hours, let alone days. He went out and bought the top-of-the-line latest model.

We have all been interviewed at length. Emily was brilliantly brave as she recounted her ordeal as well as she could. Her medical exam confirmed she’d been sedated, and that she was beaten, restrained, starved and severely dehydrated, so it’s no surprise that her memory is patchy. The police are encouraging. They say everything she recalls, no matter how small a detail, is a help. Jake and I sat in on her interview. It was harrowing to hear exactly what she had gone through. Jake actually wept. I stroked Emily’s back, held her hand. Whispered that I was sorry. I feel I let her down. How did I let this happen? I should have been more vigilant. I should have anticipated this threat and guarded against it. Whilst she was missing, I had imagined every possible degradation and torture that she might be enduring, but that still did not prepare me for hearing my child talk about what actually did happen—her absolute fear, her pain, her humiliation. When Jake sobbed, Emily took hold of his hand and said, “Don’t cry, Dad. It could have been worse.” This only made his shoulders shake more, because no grown man imagines his baby girl will one day have to be comforting him about her own misery. It’s an unnatural perversion of order. Still, I’m glad I know exactly what she has endured. We shouldn’t be protected from it, and maybe I can support her most effectively now I know.

Jake’s interview took a long time as he is potentially very useful, being the one who had the most contact with the criminals and the one who recovered Emily. I found my interview excruciating, especially when asked, “Why didn’t you call the police straight away, Mrs. Greenwood?”

“I wanted to. I thought we should, but I was too scared. They said they’d hurt her.”

“They hurt her anyway,” pointed out Detective Inspector Owens. I can’t resent the man for stating the truth. She was kicked and punched in the stomach. That’s most likely how she lost her baby.

The police seem confident that they will find a lead. Whether we ever recover the money or not, which Jake deposited into an offshore account as demanded, I don’t know, but I do want those monsters who hurt Emily brought to justice. I want them to rot in a prison cell for years.

Emily constantly assures us she is fine. She’s certainly being strong, but that is often different from fine. She was in hospital for three days and she’s been home a week now. Mostly she stays in her room. She hasn’t started at the new school; she isn’t ready for it. Logan has used her nonattendance there this term as an excuse for him to return to his old school. We’ve all agreed we can discuss the matter of which school they will settle on over the summer holidays and make a final decision then. I have put the idea of returning to their old school back on the table because first and foremost I think they’d both benefit from having their old friends around them, and also because I know that after I have paid Fred the promised money, we probably won’t be able to afford private school. Jake has not railroaded this through his preference for the private school. I guess he’s aware of Emily’s fragility. As far as I know, she has not been in touch with Ridley since she was rescued. I told him that she’d lost the baby; he was palpably relieved. An uncomplicated, understandable response. I envy him because I fear things may be a little more complex for Emily as she carried the fetus. Bloody biology curses women every time. This evening, Logan went to Scouts as usual and I was delighted when Emily emerged and announced she wanted to visit her friend Scarlett. It’s great that she’s feeling robust enough to venture out of the house and to gently kick-start her social life. I immediately drove her there and Scarlett’s dad kindly offered to bring her home by ten.

I’m not sure where Jake is. He’s often out and I don’t ask where exactly. That space thing again. Or, more honestly, that fear of having all the cards laid out on the table. I plan to spend the evening drafting an email to my old boss, Ellie, at the CAB asking whether I can have my job back now that we aren’t multimillionaires. My plan is to make a public announcement that we have given all the