Innocent: Part 3 of 3: The True Story of Siblings Struggling to Survive
Innocent can either be read as a full-length eBook or in 3 serialised eBook-only parts. This is PART 3 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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Certain details in this story, including names, places and dates, have been changed to protect the family’s privacy.
HarperElement
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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
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Source ISBN: 9780008341985
Ebook Edition © September 2019 ISBN: 9780008353735
Version: 2019-06-03
Contents
1 Cover
2 Title Page
3 Copyright
4 Contents
5 Chapter Twenty: Beyond Belief
6 Chapter Twenty-One: No Contact
7 Chapter Twenty-Two: Love the Children
8 Chapter Twenty-Three: Disclosure
9 Chapter Twenty-Four: The Wonder of Christmas
10 Chapter Twenty-Five: Aneta
11 Chapter Twenty-Six: Permanent?
12 Chapter Twenty-Seven: Judge’s Decision
13 Chapter Twenty-Eight: Saying Goodbye
14 Afterword
15 Suggested topics for reading-group discussion
16 Cathy Glass
17 If you loved this book …
19 Praise for Cathy Glass
20 About the Publisher
LandmarksCoverFrontmatterBackmatter
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Chapter Twenty
It took a moment for what Tess had told me to sink in. ‘Aneta has been making her children sick?’ I said numbly. ‘But how? They’ve been ill here too.’
‘That’s one of the reasons we didn’t make the connection. When Filip came to see me, he brought in a bottle of fluid that we’ve now had tested. It contained linctus, which induces vomiting.’
‘What?’ I gasped again, in utter disbelief. ‘What sort of linctus?’ I’d never heard of anything like that.
‘It’s usually used for medicinal purposes to make someone sick if they’ve ingested a poison. It appears that Aneta was using it regularly to make her children sick. She was able to buy it on the Internet.’
‘But they were sick here too. How did it get into my home?’ I asked, struggling to understand.
‘It was in the drink Molly and Kit brought home from contact, including the pineapple juice we took from the Family Centre to be tested.’
‘Oh.’ My head spun.
‘The police have been informed and will be interviewing the parents later today.’
‘Both parents?’
‘Yes. Although, from what we know, it’s likely Aneta was solely responsible. But that’s for the police to decide. In the meantime I’m suspending contact from today. I’ve informed the parents and the Family Centre. Can you tell the children, please?’
‘Yes, but what shall I say?’
‘Blame it on me,’ Tess said decisively. ‘Say I have made the decision to suspend contact for now. I’ll leave the exact wording to you. But don’t tell them one or both of their parents has been making them sick.’
‘No, I won’t.’ I was still struggling to take it all in.
‘I’ll need to come and see them next week. I’m not sure which day yet. I’ll let you know. You haven’t got any other food or drink from contact still there? The police asked.’
‘No. I threw it all away when I thought it could be responsible for making the children ill. I was thinking it must have gone off, never in a million years …’ My voice trailed away. ‘So Aneta added this linctus to the juice?’ I asked, still unable to believe it.
‘Yes. I’ve given the food diary to the police. They may want to speak to you about it.’
‘They don’t think I had anything to do with making the children sick?’ I asked, horrified.
‘No, but they may need to clarify some of your entries. Your writing isn’t that clear in places and the diary may be used in evidence.’
‘Sorry, I scribbled down notes as I went, never thinking it would lead to this.’
‘Also, can you confirm that Molly and Kit haven’t been ill since food and drink was banned from contact.’
‘That’s right, they haven’t,’ I said. ‘But the rash and breathing difficulties that Kit developed – when I had to take him to hospital – how does that fit in?’
