A Child's Goodbye

A CHILD'S GOODBYE AN ABSOLUTELY GRIPPING AND EMOTIONAL PAGE-TURNER ALI MERCER BOOKS BY ALI MERCER A Child’s Goodbye The Family I Lost The Marriage Lie My Mother’s Choice His Secret Family Lost Daughter Available in Audio The Family I Lost (available in the UK and US) The Marriage Lie (available in the UK and US) My Mother’s Choice (available in the UK and US) His Secret Family (available in the UK and US) Lost Daughter (available in the UK and US) CONTENTS Prologue Part One Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Part Two Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Part Three Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Chapter 35 Chapter 36 Chapter 37 Chapter 38 Chapter 39 Chapter 40 Chapter 41 Epilogue His Secret Family Prologue One Hear More from Ali Books by Ali Mercer A Letter from Ali The Family I Lost The Marriage Lie My Mother’s Choice Lost Daughter Acknowledgements * For Nanu, Luli and Helen PROLOGUE CALLIE Summer 2002 Finally, she’d done it. She’d confessed. Though she probably couldn’t have chosen a worse time, given everything he had been through lately. Plus he was upset about his ex-girlfriend choosing to stay away, treating him like a pariah. What on earth could he possibly have done to deserve that? Though maybe it was because his ex was still a little in love with him. Yes, that must be it. If that was the reason, then given her own feelings for Reuben, Callie could definitely understand. In spite of the noise of the party coming from the house behind them it was very quiet. It was the kind of hush that falls when you watch a coin spinning and wait to see which way it is going to land. At least he hadn’t bolted yet. But probably he’d make his excuses any minute now, and escape back into the party, as if she’d never said anything at all… ‘Look,’ he said after a while. ‘It’s a beautiful night.’ He was looking up at the sky, and she did too and saw the stars. Many, many stars, tiny, indomitable pinpricks in the dark, and the more she looked, the more stars she could see and the brighter they seemed. So he wasn’t about to walk away. That was something. That was more than she would have dared hope for, and a lot more than she had any right to expect. He carried on standing there, studying the stars, and so did she. Her PART ONE THE ACCIDENT Callie, Billy and Reuben 2014 ONE CALLIE The email from Sonia arrived at quarter to three, which was exactly when she was due to leave to pick Billy up from school. She should have ignored it and got ready to go, but the subject line caught her eye: Party arrangements. Typical of Sonia, who was married to Callie’s boss, to send a personal message to her work email address. As she scanned the message and took in what Sonia was saying, her heart began to race as if she was facing a physical attack. I feel like maybe we’ve got into a rut of always doing a joint party, but as time goes on, the boys have different friendship groups and different interests, and just because we’re friends it isn’t fair to always expect them to do something together… Callie felt it as Billy would feel it – as rejection, pure and simple. Nothing hurt her more than the prospect of Billy being hurt. And here was Sonia, one of her oldest friends, saying that she didn’t want Billy to share his eleventh birthday party with her son, even though they’d already agreed a date, and they always did it this way. It made sense, with the boys’ birthdays being so close together. How could Sonia do this to her, and to Billy? And in this cowardly way, by email, so she wouldn’t have to face Callie’s reaction when she told her. Of course it goes without saying that