Girl, Missing by Sophie McKenzie Page A

come from.’
    Shocked silence.
    â€˜What?’ Mum gasped.
    â€˜You wouldn’t talk about it so I . . . we went to Marchfield. I—’
    â€˜I thought you’d been abducted by some lunatic from the airport,’ Mum shrieked. ‘I thought you were
dead
, Lauren.’
    â€˜But I texted to say we were all right,’ I stammered. ‘I didn’t want you to worry. You’re always saying how psychos are very rare.’
    â€˜Not worry?’ Mum shrieked. ‘How was I supposed to know someone hadn’t
made
you send that text?’
    My head flooded with guilt. That possibility hadn’t occurred to me.
    Mum sucked in her breath. ‘So while I’ve been sitting here unable to sleep or eat for five days solid, you’ve been gallivanting around America with your boyfriend, trying to find out things which we didn’t want to tell you because we thought you weren’t old enough. A decision you have just confirmed in its rightness by your absolute selfishness . . .’
    â€˜But . . . look, I’m sorry, Mum.’ I hesitated, trying to work out what to say to make her understand. ‘We were only supposed to be gone for a few hours. Listen. Mum, I . . . I know about Sonia Holtwood and—’
    â€˜You don’t know anything, Lauren.’ Mum’s voice was suddenly harsh and low.
    â€˜Mum, she followed us,’ I pleaded. ‘She tricked us . . . tried to kill us.’ I shivered, remembering how I’d felt in the car and in the woods.
    â€˜You just said you went off on your own.’
    â€˜We did. This was later, after we’d seen Mr Tarsen.’ I stopped. It was hopeless. Everything that had happened was coming out all muddled. None of it mattered now anyway. Only one thing was important. ‘Mum, you have to listen to me. Sonia Holtwood admitted what she did when I was—’
    â€˜ENOUGH.’ Mum’s yell was so loud that I jerked phone away from my ear.
    I sat there, my heart pounding. Slowly I brought the receiver back to my ear. I could hear Mum breathing heavily on the other end. I suddenly remembered what Sonia had said about me being worth ‘a fortune’ when I was little.
    Somebody must have paid her that fortune. Why else would she have let me go?
    â€˜Did you buy me from her?’ I whispered. My stomach twisted into a knot. ‘Did you pay her to take me?’
    But Mum went into brisk, organised mode. ‘No more, Lauren,’ she said. ‘We’re coming to get you. We’ll be there in a few hours.’
    â€˜But—?’
    â€˜We’ll talk about it when we get there.’
    She hung up.
    I sat on the bed, hunched over my knees.
    How could they have done it? There was no other explanation. Mum and Dad were evil, evil people who had paid Sonia to steal me away from my real mother.
    My beautiful, kind angel mother.
    No wonder they had refused to tell me anything about my adoption. I gritted my teeth, hating them with every cell of my body. I didn’t need them. I didn’t need anyone else.
    And that’s when it came to me – the only next step possible.
    I went down to the Lodge’s computer room and logged onto the internet.

19
    Going home
    An hour later I was back in my room.
    I had a bath, then got changed.
    Glane had somehow blagged me and Jam some spare clothes from the hotel. Stuff left behind by former staff. Mine was entirely hideous: a pair of outsize green combats, two drainingly grey sweatshirts and a pair of ancient, hotpink trainers. I tugged the tiny plastic bathroom comb through my hair, wishing I had some hair wax and a nail file. And some make-up. My skin was red raw from the cold and snow and my lips were chapped.
    I looked at myself in the mirror.
    My heart sank.
    This was not how I wanted to look when I found my real mother. She was so beautiful, she’d never believe I was her daughter.
    I went down to the Lodge dining room and walked