Every Breath She Takes [CURRENTLY ON HOLD]

Chapter 25: Haunting Truths

As the years went by, our children grew up quickly. Cam settled into his school well, and the rumours seemed to die away. A month or so before Cam’s fifteenth birthday, I sat down at the table, grateful for some alone time before my family came home from school. I closed my eyes, only to open them again when I heard footsteps. Jack came into the kitchen, and leant against the counter.

“Ro,” he began, and I raised an eyebrow at him.

“What is it?”

“When you talked to the police – when Cam was a baby…”

“Mm?” I rose, reminded. Still listening, I moved about the kitchen, preparing some food for when Cam to home. Buddy trotted in, looking at us, and then trotted out again. She knew it was almost time.

“What were you thinking?”

I sighed, and then shrugged “I don’t know. I wanted them to call off the search, though. I didn’t want to be on the news any longer.”

“But why did you do it that way?”

I shrugged again. “I don’t know,” I repeated. “I just did.”

He was silent for a while, and I was just about to ask him how his latest book was going when he spoke again.

“Are you going to tell Cam?”

“Tell me what?” Cam came in at that moment, dumping his schoolbag on the kitchen floor.

“Your bag doesn’t belong there, Cam,” I said absently, my mind racing. He just snorted and dropped into a chair.

“I’ll move it later. What are you going to tell me?”

I hesitated, and looked at Jack. This wasn’t what I had wanted to start with at all. Cam noticed.

“Dad? What’s going on?” His voice began to rise, though he tried to hide his fear. “What happening?”

Jack spoke calmly. “Nothing, Cam. It’s alright. Your mother’s just had a hard time.”

Black amusement filled me. He was right – but that hard time had been nearly fifteen years ago.

“Mum!” Cam demanded, fixing his gaze on me as I gave him some afternoon tea. “Tell me what’s wrong! Please?”

I sighed, and sat down. “You will get angry with me,” I murmured. “Just…try to understand at some point, all right?”

Confused, he nodded, glancing between me and Jack. I sighed again.

“Cam…when I was younger, I was kidnapped. You know that.”

He nodded cautiously. It was no surprise to him – we had made that fact known. What I had gone through, however, we hadn’t. “What’s that got to do with it?”

I looked down, trying to gather my courage. I felt Jack moving behind me, and his hands settled on my shoulders, lending me support. I looked up again, meeting my son’s eyes.

“I was there for a year,” I explained softly. “And he sold me. I was raped at least twice a day for that year.”

Cam went pale, and I was immediately sorry that I’d told him. But I couldn’t back out now. “What you need to know isn’t that, though…” My voice trailed away, and I leant back, needing more than Jack’s touch to help me with this part.

Cam licked his lips nervously. He hadn’t taken his eyes off mine the whole time. “And?” he asked, almost afraid to hear it. “What do I need to know?”

I swallowed, and finally said it, speaking so softly that I was astonished they’d heard it. “I don’t know who your father is.”

Cam was frozen for a long time, and I looked up, meeting his eyes. Then he stood up, his chair crashing to the floor. I flinched at the sound. “You lied to me!” I flinched again at his shout, but it was what I had expected. It was hard to take in the fact that the man he’d been calling his father his whole life might not actually be his father.