Innocent: Part 2 of 3: The True Story of Siblings Struggling to Survive

Innocent: Part 2 of 3: The True Story of Siblings Struggling to Survive
Cathy Glass

Innocent can either be read as a full-length eBook or in 3 serialised eBook-only parts. This is PART 2 of 3 Innocent is the shocking true story of little Molly and Kit, siblings, aged 3 years and 18 months, who are brought into care as an emergency after suffering non-accidental injuries. Aneta and Filip, the children’s parents, are distraught when their children are taken into care. Aneta maintains she is innocent of harming them, while Filip appears bewildered and out of his depth. It’s true the family has never come to the attention of the social services before and little Kit and Molly appear to have been well looked after, but Kit has a broken arm and bruises on his face. Could it be they were a result of a genuine accident as Aneta is claiming? Both children become sick with a mysterious illness while, experienced foster carer, Cathy, is looking after them. Very worried, she asks for more hospital tests to be done. They’ve already had a lot. When Cathy’s daughter, Lucy, becomes ill too she believes she has found the cause of Kit and Molly’s illness and the parents aren’t to blame.  However, nothing could be further from the truth and what comes to light is far more sinister and shocking.

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Copyright (#u47975dd7-9741-55b6-a332-47cbcdeca777)

Certain details in this story, including names, places and dates, have been changed to protect the family’s privacy.

HarperElement

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

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

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

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Source ISBN: 9780008341985

Ebook Edition © September 2019 ISBN: 9780008353728

Version: 2019-06-03

Contents

1  Cover (#u56b2571a-8528-5661-bda1-f5cfb8e7943a)

2  Title Page

3  Copyright

4  Contents (#u47975dd7-9741-55b6-a332-47cbcdeca777)

5  Chapter Eleven: Exasperated and Worried

6 Chapter Twelve: Play Nicely

7  Chapter Thirteen: Not Responsible

8  Chapter Fourteen: Hospital

9  Chapter Fifteen: A Breakthrough?

10  Chapter Sixteen: My Fault

11  Chapter Seventeen: Accused

12  Chapter Eighteen: Leaving

13  Chapter Nineteen: Shocking

14  Moving Memoirs eNewsletter (#litres_trial_promo)

15  About the Publisher

LandmarksCover (#u56b2571a-8528-5661-bda1-f5cfb8e7943a)Frontmatter

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Chapter Eleven

Exasperated and Worried (#u47975dd7-9741-55b6-a332-47cbcdeca777)

‘It’s only happening after contact,’ I told Tess on the phone. Very worried, I’d telephoned her straight away, and thankfully she was still at her desk at 5.30 p.m. Lucy and Paula were taking care of Kit and Molly. ‘Either the children are getting very upset at contact and they’re reacting by being sick or it’s something they’re eating there. I can’t think what else it can be.’

‘They weren’t ill on Wednesday, were they?’ Tess pointed out.

‘No. So what was different? I’ll keep a close watch on Kit’s rash and take him to the hospital if necessary. They haven’t got any other symptoms and I’ve given them nothing new to eat. We’re having lasagne for dinner, which they haven’t had before, but we haven’t had dinner yet.’

‘How did they seem when they came out of contact?’ Tess asked.

‘Quiet, but not obviously upset.’ Tess would know that most children took time to adjust to seeing their parents at contact, not because they didn’t want to see them, but because they were anxious at being in care and only seeing them occasionally.

‘I’ve read the contact supervisor’s reports for Monday and Wednesday,’ Tess said. ‘Nothing stands out. I won’t get today’s report until Monday. I think I should observe contact on Monday. Will you tell Molly and Kit I’ll be there, please?’

‘Yes, and Tess, I’m still waiting for the details of any food they’ve had at contact.’