The Dilemma
Page 32
It had been the moment when she had been alone with Mr Farnley in his quiet room at the end of the corridor. The moment when she had seen how isolated and vulnerable he was, and, just for a split second, had remembered the e-mail.
If you do this, it will be over …
If the theatre porters had not come in to the room just then … Would she really have done something? Could she really have harmed that defenceless, innocent man? She hoped not. She wanted to think that such a thing would have been genuinely beyond her. But deep in her heart, perhaps she would never truly know.
Where would it end? Mandy had asked.
Dawn had thought she was in control, different from everyone else, immune to the dangers of the slippery slope. But sooner than she could ever have imagined, she had slid right down it; her foot, in fact, with what had happened with Clive, had actually ended up touching the bottom. Nursing was still her first choice, her beloved profession. She would always want what was best for it. And so had realized – thank God in time – that it was safer and better without her in it.
The car had reached Wandsworth Common. The road blocks were behind them now, the pavements populated and bustling again. The streets were clogged with traffic, the park yellow and alive with people. Children in school uniforms, mothers pushing prams. Ahead of them, a man swung a small child into the air. The sight of them gave Dawn a sudden pang. Not for Will, certainly. For Kevin then? No. She had not thought about Kevin for a long time. If anything, it was for the fact that she had driven him away, as she had driven so many others away. And for what? In the end, she had so little to show for it.
She looked out at the sunny common, filled with families and thought, I’ve wasted my life.
The car had drawn level with the man and child. The man was tall, red-haired, with long, gangly limbs. The child’s hair stood up in the breeze. His eyes were little slits of glee as his father swung him over his head. There was no doubt that the man was his father. Both had the same cheerful, good-humoured faces, the same russet hair, almost orange in the sun. Unusual to see a father and son so identical. Dawn turned to look at them more closely but already the car had passed them by. Now the rest of the park was spread out before her. An elderly woman pushing a shopping trolley. A man carrying a shopping bag. A boy spinning past on a bicycle. It was a beautiful morning, a morning to which no train crash or deaths or any suffering could ever belong. Everywhere you looked, there were people. Dawn sat up straight, gazing at them through the window. Her fingers touched the glass, her hands encircling the park. Enclosing them, all of them, guarding them, keeping them safe.
Have you read Abbie Taylor’s Sunday Times bestseller?
That was how she saw him, mostly, in the weeks that followed. Standing there in the doorway with his toothy little grin, his crooked fringe, his blue fleece with the smiley elephant on the front.
Life as a single mother is hard. Emma loves her thirteen-month-old son Ritchie, she really does – but sometimes, she dreams about what life would be like without him. But when Ritchie is abducted from the London Underground, Emma’s dream becomes a nightmarish reality.
So why don’t the police seem to believe her?
Why do they think that she would want to harm her son?
If Emma wants Ritchie back, it looks like she’ll have to find him herself. She hasn’t been the best mother in the past – but she’s willing to go to desperate lengths to bring her little boy home …
Available now in paperback and ebook
About the Author
Abbie Taylor lives in Dublin. She works as a doctor and has two daughters.
Also by Abbie Taylor
Emma’s Baby
and published by Bantam Books
TRANSWORLD PUBLISHERS
61–63 Uxbridge Road, London W5 5SA
www.penguin.co.uk
Transworld is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies whose addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com
First published in Great Britain in 2011 as In Safe Hands by Bantam Books, an imprint of Transworld Publishers
Bantam edition reissued as The Dilemma 2017
Copyright © Carla Glynn 2011
Front cover image © Stephen Mulcahey/Trevillion
Design by Stephen Mulcahey/TW
Abbie Taylor has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.
This book is a work of fiction and, except in the case of historical fact, any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Every effort has been made to obtain the necessary permissions with reference to copyright material, both illustrative and quoted. We apologize for any omissions in this respect and will be pleased to make the appropriate acknowledgements in any future edition.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Version 1.0 Epub ISBN 9781473552760
ISBN 9780857503763
This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorized distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2