Cathy Glass - Please Don’t Take My Baby

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

HarperElement

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

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London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published by HarperCollins Publishers 2013

Copyright © Cathy Glass 2013

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

Cover layout design © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2015

Cover images © James Jordan Photography/Getty Images (posed by models); Shutterstock.com (background)

A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library

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Source ISBN: 9780007514915

Ebook Edition © April 2013 ISBN: 9780007514922

Version 2016-08-15

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

The Child Bride

Saving Danny

Girl Alone

The Silent Cry

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Also by Cathy Glass Also by Cathy Glass 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 The Child Bride Saving Danny Girl Alone The Silent Cry

Author’s Note

1. Stranger at the Door

2. New Arrival

3. Awkward

4. First Evening

5. Jade’s Story

6. Jackie

7. Testing Boundaries

8. Silly, Silly Girl

9. Hurt by Dishonesty

10. ‘Like You See on the Telly’

11. ‘Smelly Baby’

12. Worth It

13. Assessment

14. Error of Judgement

15. Not an Ogre

16. A Police Matter

17. Shaken to the Core

18. Too Late

19. ‘Please Don’t Take My Baby’

20. Prolonging the Agony

21. Tuesday

22. Last Chance

23. Broken Rules and Promises

24. Moving On

Epilogue

Suggested Topics for Reading-Group Discussion Конец ознакомительного фрагмента. Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес». Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес. Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.

Acknowledgements

Sample Chapter

Cathy Glass Конец ознакомительного фрагмента. Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес». Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес. Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.

Moving Memoirs eNewsletter Конец ознакомительного фрагмента. Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес». Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес. Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.

About the Publisher Конец ознакомительного фрагмента. Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес». Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес. Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.

England has one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in the developed world. Last year nearly 40,000 teenage girls gave birth and nearly 60,000 terminated a pregnancy. These figures are truly shocking. And while some of the girls’ stories have happy endings, many do not.

We’d just sat down to our evening meal when the doorbell rang. I sighed. Why did salespeople always manage to time their calls with dinner? Double glazing, cavity-wall insulation, religion, new driveway, landscape the garden or fresh fish from Grimsby: whatever they were selling, 6.00 p.m. seemed to be the time they called, I supposed because most people are home from work by then and it isn’t so late that people won’t answer their front doors.

‘Aren’t you going to see who it is, Mum?’ Paula, my eight-year-old daughter, asked, as I didn’t immediately leave the table.

‘Yes,’ I said as the bell rang for a second time.

Standing, I swallowed my mouthful of cottage pie and went down the hall to the front door, ready to despatch the salesperson as quickly as possible.