Keep My Secrets by Elena Wilkes (large ebook reader .txt) 📗

gate. She steps back a little, not wanting to be seen, chin lifted and searching. Could it be her? Or her? Or her?

A small cluster of kids start to hustle through the gates, heading for a crossing where there’s a chip shop and newsagent on the other side of the road. There’s the incessant beep-beep-beep of the crossing lights and she desperately scans round and back to the gates. Her heart comes into her mouth.

There she is.

She’s dawdling, looking at her phone, her bulky bag slung over one shoulder. Her gangly legs in their yoga pants look as adorable as a new-born colt. She hitches the bag further onto her shoulder, her eyes don’t leave the screen, even for a second. Her hand comes up to smooth a long swathe of blonde hair, absent-mindedly pulling it across the bottom half of her face like a veil as she begins to chew the ends. Frankie’s heart cleaves wide with an immediate rush of love. She takes a few steps forward.

Her daughter.

There she is; just like her picture. Frankie drinks her in, every inch, her eyes like a camera-shutter: skinny little hands, bitten nails, her face a bit too pale, big eyes, heavy-lidded and beautiful.

I’ll make sure he can’t come near you. A sudden grip of anger replaces the love. I’ll keep him away.

The squawking of the children outside the shop grows louder. She sees Chloe look up, not letting go of her hair and pausing on the pavement edge. She’s close now – a few more steps and she’ll be within speaking distance.

Chloe smiles and waves at a group of girls on the other side of the road when a sudden movement catches Frankie’s eye.

A car comes around the corner.

Chloe steps off the pavement.

Frankie’s body responds on instinct. There’s a flash of blue and the glint of a wing mirror as the car slams on the brakes with a screaming wail of tyres. There’s a sudden hot stink of rubber and the round ‘O’ of shocked faces from the girls on the other side of the road.

Frankie’s body is propelling her forward before her brain even tells her what’s happening. Her fingers close around an arm, a shoulder as her weight meets Chloe’s. The air leaves her lungs in an exhaled punch as the tarmac zooms up before her eyes.

There are moments of dull numbness, before she manages to gaze around, dazed, into an expanse of sky as a searing pain ricochets around her body. There’s a sudden whirlwind of faces that appear and disappear, all moving dizzily as they circle. A car door slams and there’s a crunch of feet.

‘Hell,’ breathes a man’s voice as a face appears in her sightline. ‘Are you okay?’

She wipes the blood from her lip, unable to speak. Her fingers are still gripping Chloe’s blazer as though she’s never going to let it go. Chloe struggles to sit up; her yoga pants are ripped and there’s a bright trickle of red oozing from a gash on her knee.

‘I think we should call someone. Can we ring for an ambulance?’ The man looks around the stunned group. No one offers to move. Suddenly another face appears, a curly-haired woman in gym clothes, a teacher possibly, pushing her way through the group.

‘Oh my god!’ She kneels in front of them both. ‘Chloe? Are you okay, my love?’

Chloe is sitting up examining her palms. ‘Yes, yes, I’m fine – I just—’ They’re studded with grit and dirt but amazingly uncut.

‘Let’s find a clean tissue for that knee.’ The teacher delves in her pockets.

‘This lady—’

Chloe looks over shyly at Frankie. Frankie realises she’s hearing her daughter speak for the very first time.

‘This lady… Um…’ She flickers an embarrassed smile as she takes the tissues. ‘This lady stopped me from walking in front of that car. I don’t know what I was doing… I’m sorry…’ She looks up at the teacher and back to Frankie again. ‘It was stupid. I wasn’t thinking.’

‘Are you okay, though?’ Frankie manages to kneel beside her. ‘Have you got any pain anywhere?’

‘No… no, I don’t think so.’

‘Shouldn’t you call an ambulance, to be on the safe side?’ The driver glances over his shoulder.

‘I’m fine… Honestly, I’m fine…’ Chloe scrambles up, wincing and colouring bright pink.

‘Maybe you should pop back into the school for a sec.’ The teacher peers at her. ‘Just to make sure.’

‘It’s okay, my mum will be here in a minute.’ She dusts off her hands. ‘She’s picking me up.’

There are only moments before Vanessa’s voice peals out from somewhere behind them.

‘Let me through! Please let me through!’

She appears, panicked and breathless, launching herself between Frankie and Chloe.

‘Ah, Mrs Vale, I think we’re all okay,’ soothes the teacher. ‘I think we’re just a bit shaken up, but no bones broken, mercifully.’

‘It’s okay, Mum. It’s okay.’ Chloe disappears as she’s suddenly enveloped in Vanessa’s arms. ‘This lady saved me. It’s okay.’ Her voice is muffled in Vanessa’s shoulder.

The teacher quickly tries to diffuse the tension. ‘Gosh, it could all have been so much worse, so I suppose we should be thankful to this la—’

‘Have you got all your things?’ Vanessa cuts across her abruptly, glancing at the ground.

Chloe nods.

‘Then I’m taking you to A&E.’

‘Mum! I’m fine, I’m okay! Honest!’ She looks back at Frankie apologetically and Frankie yearns to reach out and touch her again.

‘I think we should be grateful—’ The teacher tries again, but Vanessa wheels round.

‘You should be the one who’s grateful, Mrs Stephenson, grateful that I don’t take this incident further,’ she snaps hotly. ‘Maybe you should have been out here supervising these children properly and not leaving them to the mercy of any odd passer-by.’

She glares with hate-filled eyes as she clutches Chloe firmly around the waist and helps her away, leaving Mrs Stephenson and Frankie gazing at each other.

There are shouts from across the road. Some of the boys have made their way to the scene to get a better look at the excitement.

‘Okay kids. Let’s all move away