Someone Else's Life by Katie Dale Read Free Book Online

“She didn’t know you weren’t her daughter!”
    I stare at her, the anger frozen in my limbs.
    What?
    She holds my gaze, her breath coming in gulps. “Rosie, sit down.”
    I open my mouth to speak but can’t, and my legs crumble as I sink onto the sofa, my head spinning, trying to figure out what I’ve missed, what she means—hitting brick walls every time.
    She didn’t know …?
    Sarah sits down next to me, takes my hands.
    “Rosie,” she says carefully, searching for the right words. “I want you to listen to me, to let me explain—without interrupting.” She swallows. “Okay?”
    I nod, not sure I can speak anyway. My throat’s like sandpaper.
    “Okay,” she sighs. “Okay.” She takes a deep breath. “You know that Trudie always wanted a child so, so desperately. But she—I don’t know if you know—she suffered a number of miscarriages …”
    I nod again, my chest tight.
    “She and David tried to adopt, but they were too old, too many stupid rules and red tape.” She sighs. “Then finally she got pregnant again. David was so angry with her, we all were, so worried she was putting herself at risk. But she kept saying how she knew that this time it was going to be okay—she just knew . And for ages it seemed she was right. Everything was going so well, she’d got to her third trimester and they were over the moon.
    “But then one horrible stormy night, just as I was finishing my shift at the hospital, your nana rushed Trudie in with stomach pains, weeks before she was due. David wasn’t there, he was out somewhere in his cab, but they’d called his dispatcher—he was on his way. Trudie was frantic, terrified of losing her baby, anxious about the storm, desperately needing David beside her, so I stayed on, determined to do everything I could for her and the child.
    “But there were … complications. The baby was born, but she wasn’t breathing properly. She was rushed off to the Special Care Baby Unit and put on a ventilator while they organized an urgent transfer to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Westhampton Hospital. I felt so helpless. All I could do was watch as she struggled to survive. She was so tiny, so frail.
    “Then my friend Jamila who works in the SCBU started sympathizing, saying how life isn’t fair—how some babies die while others aren’t even wanted. I wasn’t really listening, but she kept on about this other premature newborn, how her seventeen-year-old mother was going to give her up for adoption. She was doing my head in. I wanted to tell her to shut up, as if silence would save Trudie’s baby—with every breath she seemed to be slipping away …
    “Then Jamila asked me to cover for her. Her shift was meant to be over, but her replacement hadn’t arrived yet. Please , Jamila begged—she was going on holiday, had to catch her flight—and as I was staying anyway, I told her to go. Anything for some peace and quiet.”
    Sarah swallows, takes a deep breath.
    “The next thing I knew, an auxiliary nurse ran in, shouting that Jamila’s teenager had done a runner. I hurried back to the labor ward and nearly ran straight into your nana, who’d come to find me. Trudie was desperate to see me, she said, so together we rushed back to the delivery rooms, and sure enough, the teenage girl’s bed was empty. Security confirmed she’d left—they’d had no idea she was abandoning her baby. Then we heard Trudie. She was in hysterics, I’d never seen her so distraught. The police had arrived—there’d been a crash—David had been …” She glances at me, her face deathly pale. “He’d been so unlucky. There was nothing they could do …”
    I swallow hard.
    “It was awful. Your nana tried to comfort her, but Trudie was beside herself. Then, when she saw me, she just wanted her baby, was desperate to know if she was all right. She was so frightened, so upset, I couldn’t tell her the truth. I said I’d go and check, and hurried back to the Unit. But