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Certain details in this story, including names, places and dates, have been changed to protect the family’s privacy.
HarperElement
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London SE1 9GF
First published by HarperElement 2019
FIRST EDITION
Text © Cathy Glass 2019
Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2019
Cover photograph © Voisin/Phanie/Getty Images (stock photo posed by models)
A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library
Cathy Glass asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
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Source ISBN: 9780008341985
Ebook Edition © September 2019 ISBN: 9780008353735
Version: 2019-06-03
Contents
1 Cover
2 Title Page
3 Copyright
4 Contents
5 Chapter Twenty: Beyond Belief
6 Chapter Twenty-One: No Contact
7 Chapter Twenty-Two: Love the Children
8 Chapter Twenty-Three: Disclosure
9 Chapter Twenty-Four: The Wonder of Christmas
10 Chapter Twenty-Five: Aneta
11 Chapter Twenty-Six: Permanent?
12 Chapter Twenty-Seven: Judge’s Decision
13 Chapter Twenty-Eight: Saying Goodbye
14 Afterword
15 Suggested topics for reading-group discussion
16 Cathy Glass
17 If you loved this book …
19 Praise for Cathy Glass
20 About the Publisher
LandmarksCoverFrontmatterBackmatter
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Chapter Twenty
It took a moment for what Tess had told me to sink in. ‘Aneta has been making her children sick?’ I said numbly. ‘But how? They’ve been ill here too.’
‘That’s one of the reasons we didn’t make the connection. When Filip came to see me, he brought in a bottle of fluid that we’ve now had tested. It contained linctus, which induces vomiting.’
‘What?’ I gasped again, in utter disbelief. ‘What sort of linctus?’ I’d never heard of anything like that.
‘It’s usually used for medicinal purposes to make someone sick if they’ve ingested a poison. It appears that Aneta was using it regularly to make her children sick. She was able to buy it on the Internet.’
‘But they were sick here too. How did it get into my home?’ I asked, struggling to understand.
‘It was in the drink Molly and Kit brought home from contact, including the pineapple juice we took from the Family Centre to be tested.’
‘Oh.’ My head spun.
‘The police have been informed and will be interviewing the parents later today.’
‘Both