A Baby’s Cry
What could cause a mother to believe that giving away her newborn baby is her only option? Cathy Glass is about to find out. From author of Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller Damaged comes a harrowing and moving memoir about tiny Harrison, left in Cathy’s care, and the potentially fatal family secret of his beginnings.When Cathy is first asked to foster one-day old Harrison her only concern is if she will remember how to look after a baby. But upon collecting Harrison from the hospital, Cathy realises she has more to worry than she thought when she discovers that his background is shrouded in secrecy.She isn’t told why Harrison is in foster care and his social worker says only a few are aware of his very existence, and if his whereabouts became known his life, and that of his parents, could be in danger. Cathy tries to put her worries aside as she looks after Harrison, a beautiful baby, who is alert and engaging. Cathy and her children quickly bond with Harrison although they know that, inevitably, he will eventually be adopted.But when a woman Cathy doesn’t know starts appearing in the street outside her house acting suspiciously, Cathy fears for her own family’s safety and demands some answers from Harrison’s social worker. The social worker tells Cathy a little but what she says is very disturbing . How is this woman connected to Harrison and can she answer the questions that will affect Harrison’s whole life?
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Copyright
HarperElement
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London SE1 9GF
and HarperElement are trademarks of
HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
First published by HarperElement 2012
Cathy Glass asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library
A BABY’S CRY. © Cathy Glass 2012. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable 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 and 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.
ISBN: 9780007442638
Ebook Edition © DECEMBER 2011 ISBN: 9780007445707
Version 2018-11-05
Dedication
To Dad with love
Contents
Copyright
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter One
Secretive
Chapter Two
Helping
Chapter Three
Alone in the World
Chapter Four
Bonding
Chapter Five
The Case
Chapter Six
The Mystery Deepens
Chapter Seven
Abandoned
Chapter Eight
Stranger at the Door
Chapter Nine
Section 20
Chapter Ten
Shut in a Cupboard
Chapter Eleven
Ellie
Chapter Twelve
A Demon Exorcized
Chapter Thirteen
Pure Evil
Chapter Fourteen
Shane
Chapter Fifteen
No Wiser
Chapter Sixteen
The Woman in the Street
Chapter Seventeen
Information Sharing
Chapter Eighteen
Staying Safe
Chapter Nineteen
A Right to Cry
Chapter Twenty
An Ideal World
Chapter Twenty-One
Honour
Chapter Twenty-Two
A Baby’s Cry
Chapter Twenty-Three
Late-Night Caller
Chapter Twenty-Four
Harrison
Chapter Twenty-Five
Best Christmas
Chapter Twenty-Six
Little Brother
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Contact
Chapter Twenty-Eight
The Decision
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Letting Go
Chapter Thirty
Upset
Chapter Thirty-One
Goodbye Harrison
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
Prologue
Children can come into foster care at any age and it is always sad, but most heartbreaking of all is when a newborn baby, sometimes only a few hours old, is taken from their mother and brought into care.
Certain details in this story, including names, places, and dates, have been changed to protect the family’s privacy.
Chapter One
Secretive
‘Could you look after a baby?’ Jill asked.
‘A baby!’ I said, astonished.
‘Yes, you know. You feed one end and change the other and they keep you up all night.’
‘Very funny, Jill,’ I said. Jill was my support social worker from Homefinders, the agency I fostered for. We enjoyed a good working relationship.
‘Actually, it’s not funny, Cathy,’ she said, her voice growing serious. ‘As we speak a baby is being born in the City Hospital. The social services have known for months that it would be coming into care but they haven’t anyone to look after it.’
‘But Jill,’ I exclaimed, ‘it’s years since I’ve looked after a baby, let alone a newborn. Not since Paula was a baby, and she’s five now. I think I might have my pram and cot in the loft but I haven’t any bottles, baby clothes or cot bedding.’
‘You could buy what you need and we’ll reimburse you. Cathy, I know you don’t normally look after babies – we save you for the more challenging children – and I wouldn’t have asked you, but all our baby carers are full. The social worker is desperate.’
I paused and thought. ‘How soon will the baby be leaving hospital?’ I asked, my heart aching at the thought of the mother and baby who were about to be separated.
‘Tomorrow.’
‘Tomorrow!’
‘Yes. Assuming it’s a normal birth, the social worker wants the baby collected as soon as the doctor has given it the OK.’
I paused and thought some more. I knew my children, Paula (five) and Adrian (nine), would love to foster a baby, but I felt a wave of panic. Babies are very tiny and fragile, and it seemed so long since I’d held a baby, let alone looked after one. Would I instinctively remember what to do: how to hold the baby, sterilize bottles, make up feeds, wind and bath it, etc.?
‘It’s not rocket science,’ Jill said, as though reading my thoughts. ‘Just read the label on the packet.’
‘Babies don’t come with labels, do they?’
Jill laughed. ‘No, I meant on the packet of formula.’
‘Why is the baby coming into care?’ I asked after a moment.
‘I don’t know. I’ll find out more from Cheryl, the social worker, when I call her back to say you can take the baby. Can I do that? Please, Cathy – pretty please if necessary.’
‘All right. But Jill, I’m going to need a lot of advice and …’
‘Thanks. Terrific. I’ll phone Cheryl now and then get back to you. Thanks, Cathy. Speak to you soon.’
And so I found myself standing in my sitting room with the phone in my hand expecting a baby in twenty-four hours.
Panic took hold. What should I do first? I had to go into the loft, find the cot and pram and whatever other baby equipment might be up there, and then make a list of what I needed to buy and go shopping. It was 10.30 a.m. Adrian and Paula were at school. There’s plenty of time to get organized and go shopping, I told myself, so calm down.
