AllFreeNovel
Share Us
41
CERYS
Holidayingfamilies fill the small town on the edge of the Adriatic Sea. I keep my focus on the map on my phone so I don’t catch sight of anybody’s happiness. Horrible to begrudge someone else of this, but I’m too raw. Ella’s hair and skin colouring match so many of the local children that I despair of finding her at all.
The movement of the car lulled me to sleep on the two hour drive, and I wake up to face the stomach plummeting seconds later as my mind catches up with the world I’m in. I sit quietly in the car park while Liam books us into yet another suite. The tall, modern hotel faces a road, and across from there, trees line a path, which heads toward a busy beach. Loungers and umbrellas are set in regimented lines, and midway through the day, they’re covered in towels and tourists. Is Ella one of them?
In the room, I dump my things and pour over the emailed pictures on the laptop again. Liam orders room service and as he tucks into a large pizza, I pick at a salad and stare at the blurry image of who could be my daughter.
“Do you have the address where these were taken?” I ask him.
“Yes,” says Liam warily
“Then why aren’t we there?” I grab my handbag from the floor. “Liam?”
Liam drops his slice of pizza onto his plate and rests his hand on mine. “I need to eat, Cerys—and we need to decide what to do. What if we find them? How do we get Ella home?”
I snatch my hand away. “If he doesn’t let Ella come with us, we’ll call the police.”
“He might be reasonable.”
I arch an eyebrow. “I don’t believe you just said that! Is anything about his behaviour reasonable?”
“Give me five minutes, Cerys, and we’ll go. But I want you to eat that before we do.” He indicates the salad I’ve eaten two mouthfuls from. “I haven’t seen you eat anything for a day.”
The constant nagging about my eating leads to flare ups between us, and right now, I need Liam behind me a hundred percent. I force myself to eat a forkful of the fresh, green salad that tastes of nothing with my dull senses.
“There’s something worrying me,” Liam says quietly as he watches. “About us, not Ella.”
“What?” I stab some more salad onto my fork.
“I think you might blame me.”
I gawk at him. “What for?”
“If you weren’t with me, Craig might not have taken her.” Liam looks intently at his pizza.
I curl my hand around his. “Don’t think that, it’s not true.”
“You even said yourself. I should’ve kept away.”
“No, Liam! Our relationship doesn’t excuse his disgusting behaviour. This is all him and not you.”
He turns to me and his next words explain why he’s lost his cool with me a couple of times over the last few days. “I worry that when we find Ella and you take her home that you’ll end this.”
His words stun me. “Do you really think I’m that callous? That I’m using you?”
“No! I just know you’ll always put Ella first. I get that I’m on the edge of your lives still.”
“Liam. Please. My brain can’t cope with conversations about us.” I turn his face to mine. “I love you. Please believe that you’re important to me too.”
Liam scrunches his face up, the way he does when he’s trying not to say something wrong. He studies me for a moment. “And I love you too, more than you know. But after we find Ella, we need to talk.”
And we’re dragged from our tiny moment of Liam and Cerys back into the nightmare reality of my missing daughter. The trail of thoughts starts in my head again, and I fight against reaching the conclusion I always do.
What if I never see Ella again?
* * *
