The Child Bride

Chapter Nineteen: Atrocity (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty: I Miss Hugs (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty-One: Police Business (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty-Two: The Suitcase (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty-Three: Other Victims (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty-Four: The Silence Was Deafening (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty-Five: Heartbreaking (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty-Six: Turn of Events (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty-Seven: More than I Deserve (#litres_trial_promo)

Epilogue: Deserves the Best (#litres_trial_promo)

Contacts (#litres_trial_promo)

Exclusive sample chapter (#litres_trial_promo)

Cathy Glass (#litres_trial_promo)

If you loved this book … (#litres_trial_promo)

Moving Memoirs eNewsletter (#litres_trial_promo)

A note from The Fostering Network (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

Also by Cathy Glass (#u59db0d86-5327-55b2-a880-7d5f28b5b6ba)

Damaged

Hidden

Cut

The Saddest Girl in the World

Happy Kids

The Girl in the Mirror

I Miss Mummy

Mummy Told Me Not to Tell

My Dad’s a Policeman (a Quick Reads novel)

Run, Mummy, Run

The Night the Angels Came

Happy Adults

A Baby’s Cry

Happy Mealtimes for Kids

Another Forgotten Child

Please Don’t Take My Baby

Will You Love Me?

About Writing and How to Publish

Daddy’s Little Princess

Acknowledgements (#u59db0d86-5327-55b2-a880-7d5f28b5b6ba)

A big thank-you to my editor, Holly; my literary agent, Andrew; Carole, Vicky, Laura, Hannah, Virginia and all the team at HarperCollins.

Prologue (#u59db0d86-5327-55b2-a880-7d5f28b5b6ba)

A small child walks along a dusty path. She has been on an errand for her aunt and is now returning to her village in rural Bangladesh. The sun is burning high in the sky and she is hot and thirsty. Only another 300 steps, she tells herself, and she will be home.

The dry air shimmers in the scorching heat and she keeps her eyes down, away from its glare. Suddenly she hears her name being called close by and looks over. One of her teenage cousins is playing hide and seek behind the bushes.

‘Go away. I’m hot and tired,’ she returns, with childish irritability. ‘I don’t want to play with you now.’

‘I have water,’ he says. ‘Wouldn’t you like a drink?’

She has no hesitation in going over. She is very thirsty. Behind the bush, but still visible from the path if anyone looked, he forces her to the ground and rapes her.

She is nine years old.

Chapter One

Petrified (#u59db0d86-5327-55b2-a880-7d5f28b5b6ba)

‘And she wouldn’t feel more comfortable with an Asian foster carer?’ I queried.

‘No, Zeena has specifically asked for a white carer,’ Tara, the social worker, continued. ‘I know it’s unusual, but she is adamant. She’s also asked for a white social worker.’