The Stolen Sisters: from the bestselling author of The Date and The Sister comes one of the most thrilling, terrifying and shocking psychological thrillers of 2020
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Again.
The irony of this was not lost on her.
Time stretched. Without the earlier distraction of her sisters, the afternoon seemed endless. A check of her watch told her that George was not due for a while. He’d promised her some more cash but Marie knew she couldn’t rely on his money much longer. For the first few days after she’d found out about him and Francesca, he’d told her it was a mistake, that he’d end it. Now he didn’t say anything at all, although he still couldn’t meet her eye. He wasn’t proud of himself, Marie knew. The shamed could recognize the shameful like a kindred spirit.
Despite everything, she thought George was a good man. He had a good heart. Leah was a lot to handle. All of them were a lot to handle. Two days ago when he dropped off some money Marie could see Francesca sitting in the passenger seat, pulling down the sun visor and checking her lipstick in the mirror. Marie knew it was only a matter of time before he left Leah to begin a new life, and the thought of her fragile sister alone broke her heart. How would she manage emotionally? Financially? How would Archie cope without his father? It wasn’t easy adjusting to life with a single parent. She should know. The selfish part of her unfurled. How would she cope without his money? If only there was a way to do the TV interview alone. But could she betray her sisters?
Could she betray her sisters again?
The doorbell rang. Marie padded down the hallway, gripped the door handle with her slick palm and hesitated, unsure of who was on the other side. She never had unscheduled visitors, no friends that might drop in for coffee.
Who was out there?
Marie didn’t think her dealer knew where she lived but it wouldn’t have been hard to find out. She swallowed hard, the taste of him rising in her throat once more. This time, there was a banging on the door.
‘Marie?’ Carly’s impatient voice called.
Marie opened the door.
‘I left my phone in your kitchen.’ Carly pushed past her. Marie stayed rooted to the spot, hoping that Carly would collect her mobile and leave, and yet overriding that thought was a desire that Carly would stay. Marie hated being alone. She was always alone. ‘Found it. Can I talk to you a sec?’
Carly crossed into the lounge. Marie closed the door and checked her watch again. She’d have to get rid of Carly before George arrived. Who knew how she’d react if she knew Marie had been blackmailing him? Taking money away from Leah who was always her favourite and Archie who she adored.
She’d probably want to kill her.
Chapter Fifty
Carly
One week ago
Carly tried to put her thoughts in order, rearrange the words in her head while she waited for Marie to join her in the lounge. It wasn’t exactly that she felt they should do the interview but, now she’d had a chance to calm down, she had to admit her curiosity was building brick by brick – but the wall of questions crumbled the instant Marie shuffled into the room.
‘Marie? You look awful. Are you sick?’ Carly began to stand but Marie held out her hands to stop her. At first Carly thought Marie was trying to keep her away from any germs but then she noticed the track marks on her arms.
‘Oh, Marie.’ Again, Carly felt the weight of responsibility she always bore. She should have noticed before. She could have done something. Now she knew, she could help. ‘Is that why you wanted to do the TV thing? For money for…’
Carly’s eyes flickered towards Marie’s forearms. She didn’t know what Marie was taking. What did you inject? Cocaine? Heroin? It was a different world to the one Carly inhabited.
Marie sank into the chair, her knees springing up, her hands pushing them back down. ‘I want the cash for rehab. I want to be clean, Carly.’
‘How much do you need?’
Marie told her the figure. Carly felt her chest tighten. She made enough selling bits and pieces online to cover her frugal lifestyle. She couldn’t fund that much. ‘Couldn’t your GP help?’
‘Been there, done that.’ Marie seemed to shrink before Carly’s eyes until she was eight once more. A wave of maternal longing swept over Carly.
‘Tell me what you need us to do. What do the production company want?’
A new angle.
Marie shook her head.
‘You must have had something in mind when you asked us here earlier. Tell me.’
‘You’ll… You’ll hate me once you know.’
‘I won’t. I couldn’t. Marie, please, what is it?’
A new angle.
Wasn’t it enough that their dad had arranged their abduction to save his business? The community had been outraged when the truth came out, some disbelieving. There had been a smidgeon of reassurance when it was thought the girls had been abducted by a stranger – there was only a slim likelihood it would ever happen again. The revelation that Simon had arranged it had hit the town hard. A monster walked among them and they had sat with him in the pub, stood next to him at football matches, chatted to him as they walked their dogs. They had never guessed and were horrified but, however bad they thought they had it, it had been a million times worse for Carly.
She had chosen to love him. Chosen to think of him as her dad. Even now, it was impossible not to label him this way because she thought of Leah and Marie as her whole sisters. They’d never thought of themselves as anything but. Once a journalist had thrust a microphone towards her mouth and demanded to know whether Carly wished her mum had never met Simon so Carly wouldn’t have gone through such an ordeal. The notion threw Carly. The small space of her throat had closed and she’d pushed past the woman with her weasel face, her acrylic red nails and thoughtless questions.
Did she wish her mum had never met Simon?
If she hadn’t met him then the twins would never exist and how could she ever wish for that? That man had ruined her life with one hand but given her something precious with the other.
Sisters.
And for a time they’d all been happy. A proper family. Leah and Marie had been the closest, of course, but that was because they were twins, not because she had a different dad. She had never felt any less.
A new angle.
What was so bad that Marie couldn’t meet her eye?
Half a sister.
Half a person.
Half the truth.
‘Tell me,’ Carly demanded over and over until Marie falteringly began to speak.
Chapter Fifty-One
Marie
One week ago
‘I… I…’ Marie’s hands were shaking, her teeth too. ‘I overheard Mum and Dad talking… planning, I suppose. The abduction… I—’
‘Mum didn’t know!’ Carly said.
‘She did… I heard them.’
‘When? Where were we?’ Carly’s eyes narrowed.
‘It was late. You were in bed, and Leah was asleep. I was wide awake, worrying.’
‘About what?’
Marie scratched her arm. ‘You, I guess. I was thinking you’d gone off us, that you preferred Dean Malden to—’
‘Oh, for God’s sake,’ Carly snapped. ‘Tell me about Mum and Dad.’
‘Well, I crept downstairs and they were in the kitchen. They didn’t know I was outside the door. I was about to go in when Mum said, Tell me again and there was something in her voice that made me hesitate. Dad explained to her that, with the right media coverage, missing children can attract a lot of attention. People would donate money—’
‘Even if he said that, Mum would never agree. Why would she?’ Carly cut in.
‘She did say no… at first.’
‘What changed her mind?’ The expression on Carly’s face told Marie that she didn’t believe any of it.
It was a sharp and jagged truth and, as much as Marie didn’t want to share it, it was a relief in a way. She’d carried it alone for such a long time.
‘Dad said that… he said that if Mum didn’t agree then they would lose the house—’
‘So? Big deal. Loads of people move.’
‘Well, that’s fucking ironic, looking at you.’ Marie didn’t blame Carly for lashing out.
‘Dad said it would only be for a couple of days and there wouldn’t be any lasting effects.’
‘Yeah, right.’ Carly jabbed her finger at Marie. ‘Junkie.’ She pointed a finger at herself. ‘Too scared to trust anyone and Leah…’
‘I know.’ Marie hung her head.
‘Christ.’ Carly pressed her fingers into her skull. ‘Sorry. I don’t mean to take it out on you but… really? That’s all it took to persuade Mum?’
‘Dad really scared her. He said we’d all have to change schools. That me and Leah probably wouldn’t see her or you again. She was terrified. He told her that in time we’d forget it ever happened. “It will be just one small event in their long and happy lives,” he said.’
‘Yes, because we’re all so happy.’
‘He asked her to trust him,’ Marie said. ‘And I suppose she did.’
Neither of them spoke. The muscle in Carly’s jaw was pulsing, quick and angry. Marie felt it all again. The fear that she might lose her sisters but this time it would be all her fault. She should have said something before. Her stomach contracted, veins screamed, body craving a numbness that she couldn’t afford. Right now there was only Carly and the truth.
‘Why the fuck didn’t you tell us?’ Marie flinched as Carly swore at her. ‘In court Dad said he’d acted alone. Mum swore she didn’t know anything. They were lying. You were lying. Why didn’t you tell us before it happened?’
‘I wanted to but I thought I could talk Dad out of it. I tried, I really did.’
Carly rose to her feet and began to pace the room. Four steps to the window, turn. Five steps to the door. Marie’s breath hitched in her throat, afraid Carly would leave but equally hoping she would just go. Carly strode over to the bookcase. Giant angry steps for such a small oppressive room. ‘Tell me everything.’
‘Okay.’ Marie closed her eyes and she remembered.
Chapter Fifty-Two
Carly
One week ago
Carly thought that nothing Marie could tell her now would be as bad as what had been revealed moments before.
She was wrong.
Chapter Fifty-Three
Marie
Then
Marie closed her eyes as her mum pressed the back of her hand against her forehead.
‘You don’t feel hot but you are very pale. And it’s your tummy?’
‘Yes. It hurts.’ Marie wasn’t lying. Ever since she’d eavesdropped on the conversation between her parents last night, the knot in her stomach had tightened and she felt a constant dull ache. ‘I think Leah’s sick too. She should stay here.’
‘God, if they’re both claiming to be ill they’ve probably got a maths test or something. Mum, we’re going to be late,’ Carly said unfairly. The twins were often ill at the same time. Chicken pox. Measles. Once Marie had lost her voice although she hadn’t felt remotely poorly, not knowing that Leah had gone to see the school nurse, hit by a sudden bout of tonsillitis.
‘Leah, are you poorly too?’ Mum asked. Marie willed her twin to say she was. If she stayed home Marie could tell her what she had overheard and they could try and work out what it all meant. Leah met Marie’s gaze and Marie knew she understood the wordless message.
‘I… I’m…’ Leah clasped her hands over her stomach. ‘Umm.’ Her cheeks flushed red. She was always useless at lying.
‘Leah?’ Mum tilted her head to one side.
‘I… I’m okay.’ She mouthed sorry at Marie as she picked up her rucksack and followed Carly out of the room.
Mum crossed the floor and slotted The Little Mermaid DVD into the side of the TV. She handed the remote control to Marie.
‘I’ll drop your sisters at school and then I’m going out but Dad’s working from home today and he’ll—’
‘Please don’t leave me.’ Marie grabbed her mum’s hand and tried her to pull her back.
‘Mum!’ Carly shouted from downstairs.
‘I’ve got to go. See you later. Love you.’ Mum dropped a kiss on the top of Marie’s head. The front door slammed and a sense of separation saddened Marie. She listened to her sisters’ chatter as they piled into the car below her window. The engine roared to life and it felt to Marie as if they weren’t just driving away from the house, they were driving away from her. Tears poured down her cheeks, soaking into her Ariel pyjama top. Marie had never felt so lonely.
It wasn’t long until she heard Dad climbing the stairs. ‘I’m under orders to bring you Calpol,’ he boomed cheerfully. She was eight and could swallow a paracetamol but Marie still preferred the sweet gloopy medicine that tasted of strawberries. She didn’t want to see her dad, though. She certainly didn’t want to speak to him. She quickly shuffled under the covers and turned her face to the wall, forced her breath to be slow and even as she pretended to be asleep.
She was good at pretending.
Dad quietly put the bottle and the spoon on her bedside cabinet and left the room, leaving Marie alone with her fake stomach ache, in her fake life where everything suddenly felt as temporary as the stage scenery in her school production of Annie. From the outside the buildings looked real and solid when in fact they were weak and flimsy. Easy to knock down.
Each time the DVD reached the end it would whirr back to the beginning, but Marie had barely registered her favourite film. Her mind was a slideshow of clips from completely different movies, but instead of the usual characters, it was her and her family playing the parts. Herself and Leah separated from their mother and abandoned by their father, placed in the care of a cruel Miss Hannigan, waiting for a Daddy Warbucks who never came – it’s a hard knock life. Carly, thin and hungry, holding out a bowl – please, sir, can I have some more? Bruno forced out of the home he loved, fleeing from the Dog Catcher who wanted to lock him up. Reliant on begging for spaghetti from a kindly Italian restaurant owner so he didn’t starve.
It was all too much. She must have got it wrong. She slid out of bed and padded downstairs. Dad was in his study, his back to her as he hunched over his laptop. Instead of pushing her way in like she usually would, clambering on his lap, she hesitated in the doorway, uncertain and afraid. It was Bruno who spotted her first. He was dozing in the corner in front of the bay window where a patch of sunlight warmed the carpet. Immediately he bounded over to her, ears flapping and tail wagging. He delightedly licked her face with his rough tongue.
‘Marie!’ Her father spun around on his chair. ‘You gave me a fright. It must be almost lunchtime. Hungry?’
Marie shook her head.
‘How are you feeling?’ he asked.
Marie didn’t know how to articulate all of the emotions that wriggled around her tummy like worms. She thought very hard about what she wanted to say – the questions she wanted to ask – but there was a part of her, a big part that just didn’t want to know the answers. She shrugged.
‘Let’s get you back to bed.’ He stretched out his hand and led the way upstairs. She didn’t want to take it, in that moment he almost felt like a stranger to her, but then she thought, be good and he won’t send you away.
‘Daddy.’ She looked at him earnestly as he tucked the duvet around her legs. ‘I’d never take drugs. Neither would Leah or Carly.’
Be good and he won’t send you away.
‘I should hope not! You shouldn’t be thinking of such things at your age.’
Her stomach growled. She hadn’t eaten since dinner last night. She was ravenous.
‘Shall I bring up some soup? Beans on toast?’
‘Which is cheaper?’
Be good and he won’t send you away.
‘I don’t know. That’s a funny question. W
hy do you ask?’
‘I think…’ Marie’s voice wobbled. ‘I think we must all cost a lot to feed and we could eat less, I could and—’
‘Why—’
‘And I could share my dinner with Bruno so he doesn’t have to live in a cage with the other dogs laughing at him because he comes from a posh home.’ Tears streamed down Marie’s cheeks.
‘Marie.’ The mattress dipped as her dad perched on the edge. ‘I need you to tell me what this is about.’
All the words she needed to say clumped together as one hard mass and rose in her throat but she couldn’t spit them out. She couldn’t swallow. Breathe.
‘Shhh.’ Dad rubbed her back. ‘Calm down. It’s okay.’
‘It isn’t.’ Marie hiccupped. ‘I heard you and Mum last night. I know you’re going to split us all up and I’ll have to eat cold mush and scrub floors and—’
‘Enough.’ Her dad held up his palm. His shoulders rose before slumping. Marie heard the breath whoosh out of his nose. ‘It seems I have some explaining to do. But, Marie, you must give me your extra best promise that you can keep a secret. Can you do that?’
‘Yes, Daddy.’ His gaze held hers, waiting for more. ‘I promise I can keep a secret.’
Be good and he won’t send you away.
‘We’re in a bit of a sticky situation,’ he began falteringly. ‘Financially… You might have noticed we haven’t been on holiday for a long time. The fridge isn’t packed full of the usual things we like to eat.’
‘Carly babysits us so Mum doesn’t have to pay anyone?’
‘Yes. That sort of thing. If we don’t get back on our feet pretty sharpish I won’t have a business and we won’t be able to live here any more.’
‘Carly and Mum have to go and live in a hovel? And Bruno has to live at the pound. And me and Leah might stay together but three is still a big number to house.’ Marie repeated back the things she had overheard, her voice thick with tears.
‘No. You shouldn’t have… I didn’t mean.’ Her dad dropped his head in his hands. Tentatively Marie shuffled forward in the bed and stroked his hair. He raised his face, his eyes looking at something just past Marie’s shoulder. ‘Yes,’ he said quietly. ‘That’s exactly what could happen. We’ll all be split up and living in different houses.’