No Child of Mine Read Online Free PDF Page A

was the first the police hadstumbled upon when they’d broken down the door to get into the house; the others were in the sitting room, dining room and kitchen.
    It was a day later, the rector had told her, while he was at the crime scene, gaining an understanding of the trauma the police officers had experienced in order to help them, that a little girl had been found alive and uninjured in a hidden compartment of the attic. Alex had no memory of being taken from the cupboard, or of anyone carrying her outside to a car, but she knew now that the first arms to reach for her had been the rector’s. And in the absence of any known family to hand her over to, he’d insisted on taking her home to his wife.
    She knew that would never be allowed these days, but back then, when the rules governing child protection hadn’t been so stringent and men of cloth were more highly respected, there had been no objection to the trustworthy young priest and his wife taking her in. As they were registered foster carers she might have ended up with them anyway, so the authorities had simply arranged the paperwork to suit. She’d been three years old then; four and a half when they’d officially adopted her and five by the time Douglas Lake had become the rector of Mulgrove and they’d moved to the Vicarage.
    By then her real father, who was known to have carried out the killings, still hadn’t been found. Police believed that his human-trafficking associates, mostly Asians and Russians, had smuggled him out of the country back to his native Romania, but no trace had been found of him there either. The reason for the killings, Alex had been told, was that her mother, who’d come from Liverpool and got herself into an early, disastrous marriage, had threatened to go to the police when she’d discovered the truth of her husband’s business.
    He’d never been traced, and because there were fears that he might one day come back and try to find her, Alex’s identity had always been fiercely protected. No one outside her immediate family (apart from Jason now) knew that she was the little girl who’d escaped the Temple Fields killings. In fact, they’d happened so long ago thatno one ever really thought about them now, apart from her.
    At the time of learning the truth about her roots she’d begun tormenting herself with how different her life might have been if she’d grown up with her real mother and brother. Not that she didn’t love Myra, her adoptive mother, but she’d always known in her heart that Myra hadn’t been happy about having the daughter of a maniacal murderer foisted upon her. She’d tried to be kind, of course, and to ensure that Alex didn’t go without, at least in a material and welfare sense, but she’d never managed to make Alex feel as special as Gabby. And the way she’d later broken the news to Alex that actually, she wasn’t the only survivor of that terrible night, had been so matter-of-fact as to be downright cruel. Why had she not realised how shattering it would be for fourteen-year-old Alex to learn that her mother had come through it too, in spite of the near fatal knife wounds to her back and chest? She’d been hospitalised for almost a year, Myra had told her, but after her discharge she’d simply disappeared.
    ‘Didn’t she come to see me?’ Alex had asked, her voice hoarse with the shock.
    Myra had shaken her head. ‘I’m afraid not, my dear,’ she’d replied, managing to sound both sympathetic and disapproving – though whether she’d disapproved of the question, or of Alex’s real mother, Alex had never been sure. ‘She met with the rector and it was agreed that you were safe and settled with us, so it would be for the best if she left you here.’
    ‘But she must have wanted to see me?’
    ‘Oh, I’m sure she did, but she was afraid – we all were – that if she came she’d lead your real father straight to our door. So after signing the adoption papers she left the area