Cathy Glass - A Terrible Secret: Scared for Her Safety, Tilly Places Herself Into Care. A Shocking True Story

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

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First published by HarperElement 2020

FIRST EDITION

Cathy Glass 2020

Cover layout design HarperCollinsPublishers 2020

Cover photograph Tanya Gramatikova/Trevillion Images (photograph posed by a model)

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Cathy Glass asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

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Source ISBN: 9780008398743

Ebook Edition September 2020 ISBN: 9780008398750

Version: 2020-09-30

A big thank you to my family; my editors, Kelly and Holly; my literary agent, Andrew; my UK publishers HarperCollins, and my overseas publishers who are now too numerous to list by name. Last, but definitely not least, a big thank you to my readers for your unfailing support and kind words. They are much appreciated.

Chapter One

Lucy was pregnant. It was all I could think about.

As an experienced foster carer, I am used to dealing with other peoples problems. Indeed, I pride myself on being rather good at it. However, now faced with a problem of my own, I found I was not as good as I thought. Lucy, my twenty-four-year-old daughter, had arrived home unexpectedly on 14 December, when she should have been at work, and announced she was pregnant. Two weeks later she and her boyfriend still hadnt decided what they were going to do about it, and I was worried sick.

In addition to this worry, I was now waiting for Tilly Watkins to arrive with her social worker. Tilly, aged fourteen, was upset and angry. Before Christmas shed gone to the social services offices and asked to be taken into foster care, claiming that her parents continuous fighting was making her depressed and she couldnt stand it any longer. I had been told to expect her, but then shed changed her mind and had decided to stay at home over Christmas, feeling that the festive season might help sort out their differences.

It didnt.

Far from helping, it had caused the situation to quickly deteriorate, and this morning 28 December her neighbours had called the police after hearing an hour of shouting, china smashing, and Tilly and her mother crying. When the police arrived, Tilly had a graze on her cheek and had demanded she be taken into foster care. Her social worker, Isa Neave, had telephoned me half an hour ago to say they were now on their way, so Tilly would be living with me for the foreseeable future.

My son Adrian, twenty-six, was at work, as was Lucy. Adrian worked for a firm of accountants and Lucy in a nursery. My youngest daughter, Paula, twenty-two, attended a local college but the new term didnt resume until the following week. She was out shopping at the sales with a friend, so there was just our cat, Sammy, and me at home. I was divorced, my ex having run off with a work colleague many years before painful at the time, but history now. Sammy and I were in the living room, which is at the rear of my house. I was sitting on the sofa, gazing though the patio windows to the garden beyond, bare in the heart of winter. Sammy was in his usual spot curled up asleep by the radiator and blissfully unaware of the turmoil I was going through. How lovely to be a cat! I thought.

Even though Im a very experienced foster carer, I still get anxious when Im waiting for a new child or young person to arrive, hoping they will take to me and settle, and wondering how best I can help them. Now my thoughts and worries remained with Lucy, as indeed they were every waking moment, and often during the night. No one else in my family knew Lucy was pregnant apart from me. Shed didnt want anyone to know while she made the difficult decision to terminate the pregnancy or keep the baby. Shed already discounted the other option of having the baby and putting it up for adoption. I couldnt bear to go through all that and give it up, shed said tearfully.

Id nodded understandingly and listened.

The father of her baby, Darren, was aware of the situation and apparently also thinking what to do for the best. He was the same age as Lucy and a colleague of hers at the nursery where she worked. Id met him briefly a couple of times and he seemed nice enough, but theyd only been dating a few months. Lucy told me nothing had been further from their minds than starting a family. They both had careers and shed admitted to me she didnt think she was mature enough to parent a child yet, and in some ways I agreed. Although as most parents know, you mature very quickly once youre responsible for a baby. Lucy and I had had a few long conversations before Christmas and Id said Id support her whatever she and Darren decided, but it had to be their decision.

How we managed to get through Christmas Im not sure, but we did and had a nice time. Im not going to ruin everyones Christmas, Lucy told me. Ill make the decision in the New Year, on the first of January. Which seemed a bit dramatic, but then Lucy can be dramatic sometimes. She knew she couldnt leave the decision any longer, for she would be ten weeks pregnant by then and if she was going to have a termination, it needed to be done as soon as possible.

Lucy hadnt had the best start in life. Shed come to me as a foster child, unsettled, unloved, with an eating disorder, and nowhere to call home. Shed done incredibly well to move on from her past and Id adopted her, so she was a permanent member of my family. I loved her as much as I did my birth children Adrian and Paula and she loved us. She was usually lively, vibrant and outgoing, and could sometimes be impulsive and hot-headed, but thats just who she is. I tell Lucys story in Will You Love Me?

Still gazing through the patio windows, I was suddenly jolted from my thoughts by the sound of the doorbell ringing. Sammys ears pricked up. I immediately stood. It would be Tilly with her social worker, and they deserved my full attention.

Putting aside my own worries, I went along the hall and raised a smile as I opened the front door. Hello, love, nice to meet you. Come in, I welcomed. Im Cathy.

The first thing I noticed about Tilly was the red graze on her cheek, the second was how scared she looked. I guessed that now she was here reality had set in as she realized shed left home and put herself in care. She stepped quietly into the hall.

Im Isa Neave, Tillys social worker said, following her in, and shook my hand.

I took their coats and hung them on the hall stand. Tilly was slender, delicate-looking, about five feet six inches tall, with shoulder-length dark hair and a sallow complexion.

I havent got any of my things with me, she said, clearly worried.

Ill collect what you need later today. Once Ive got you settled here, Isa said to her, then to me, The police brought Tilly straight to the social services offices so Ill need to speak to her mother and arrange to collect some of her belongings.