‘Can I see him?’ Sophie had followed Amy out to the kitchen after the main course.
Amy put down the plates she was holding and looked up at Sophie with a slight frown. ‘Are you sure that’s a good idea?’
Sophie nodded. ‘As long as you’re OK with it?’
Amy ran a hand over her forehead. ‘Yes, of course. Follow me.’
They climbed the stairs to the first floor. Amy tiptoed into a darkened room where a little bundle was sleeping soundly in his cot. She switched on the moon-shaped lamp on the chest of drawers and Sophie gazed down at him in the soft light it threw out. He was lying on his back with his arms stretched out either side of him, his palms clenched into tiny fists. His mouth was slightly open and his breathing was snuffly, as his chest rose and fell inside his snow-white Babygro. Beside him lay a small, white, fluffy dog.
Sophie reached out to touch his soft, downy head. ‘He’s perfect, Amy.’
Amy put her arm around Sophie and leaned her head on her shoulder. ‘He’s why I couldn’t leave, Sophie. Him and Megan.’
‘I know. We all know.’ Sophie continued to stare at the sleeping child. George, they had named him. Sophie had never told anyone but that was the name she had chosen for her baby boy. In a strange way that she couldn’t really understand herself, she took some comfort that Amy had used the same name.
And she felt comforted in finally seeing him too. She hadn’t been ready before. It was too raw. So she had sent a present she had lovingly chosen and sent it by post instead. It was the fluffy dog that was lying beside him now.
‘I’m so sorry you lost your baby, Sophie… And I’m sorry for what I said when I called you. I didn’t mean it.’
Sophie pulled her eyes away from the baby and turned towards Amy. ‘Thank you. I’m sorry I haven’t been able to see him before now. But I’m so glad I have. It helps, in a weird sort of way.’
Amy nodded and gave Sophie a quick, slightly embarrassed hug. ‘Shall we go back and join the others?’
As they walked down the stairs, Sophie put her hand on Amy’s arm. ‘How are things now? Between you and Nick?’
Amy didn’t look up. ‘Good. Fine. Everything’s fine.’ The words rattled off her tongue unconvincingly. Sophie decided to let it drop. Maybe having another baby had helped. Amy certainly seemed calmer and less stressed.
‘Resigned,’ Melissa corrected her, as they drove away from Amy’s later that evening. ‘She’s not calm. She’s resigned to her fate.’
‘Oh God, don’t say that.’ Sophie glanced at Melissa as she drove towards the tube station.
‘Melissa’s right, I’m afraid,’ said Emily from the back seat. She sounded frustrated and annoyed. ‘She’s completely trapped. If she was to leave him, he’d come after her. I can’t believe she’s still got that same bloody nanny, too. She’s seriously bad news and I guarantee she’s sleeping with Nick.’
‘There must be something we can do?’ Sophie wasn’t used to being helpless. To not being able to solve a problem.
‘Well, I’ve told her that she can come to me any time of the day or night. I’m not sure what else we can do but make it clear we’re there for her.’ Emily sighed. ‘I’m actually more worried about her now than I was before. This resignation and acceptance are more terrifying than if she was hysterical and screaming blue murder.
‘He’s so bloody clever, that’s the problem,’ she continued. ‘He’d make out she was a mentally unstable danger to the kids. And that bitch of a nanny would back him up.’
They lapsed into silence for a few moments while they each contemplated Amy’s situation.
Suddenly Emily sat up and leaned forward. ‘We could stage an intervention!’
‘What? Kidnap her?’ Sophie looked at Emily in the rear-view mirror in disbelief.
‘We wouldn’t be kidnapping her,’ Emily said, a slight note of irritation detectable in her voice. ‘We’d be rescuing her. It’s very different.’
‘Jesus,’ Melissa muttered under her breath. ‘I can’t believe this is happening.’
‘I don’t know, Em…’ Sophie said. ‘I was talking to Steve about it earlier. He said we don’t know for sure that he’s violent towards her—’
‘We do,’ Emily cut in firmly. ‘We might not have actually witnessed it but we’ve seen the results with our own eyes. And when I confronted him last year, he didn’t even try to deny it. He just smirked in that creepy way he has.’
‘Yes, but whatever we think of him, he’s still the father of those kids. He will always have to be a part of her life.’ Melissa’s words fell into a vacuum of silence.
At last Sophie spoke. ‘I’ve got room in the new house for all of them.’
Emily sat up straighter and leaned forward. ‘And he doesn’t know where the new house is, so there’d be no chance of him tracking her down, at least to begin with. Let’s think how we could do it.’
‘I’m not sure…’ Melissa cut in. ‘It could go horribly wrong. We might make things worse.’
‘Nothing could be worse than him killing her, Melissa.’ Emily snapped. ‘And if we don’t do something, I’m seriously scared that’s what might happen.’