Cathy Glass - Damaged, A Baby’s Cry and The Night the Angels Came 3-in-1 Collection

THE MILLION COPY BESTSELLING AUTHOR

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

HarperElement

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

and HarperElement are trademarks of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

First published by HarperElement 2013

FIRST EDITION

© Cathy Glass 2013

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

While every effort has been made to trace the owners of copyright material reproduced herein and secure permissions, the publishers would like to apologise for any omissions and will be pleased to incorporate missing acknowledgements in any future edition of this book

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

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable 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 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.

Find out about HarperCollins and the environment at www.harpercollins.co.uk/green

Ebook Edition © APRIL 2013 ISBN: 9780007527441

Version: 2020-07-10

Cover

Title Page Cathy Glass THE MILLION COPY BESTSELLING AUTHOR

Copyright Copyright Copyright Damaged A Baby’s Cry The Night the Angels Came Also by Cathy Glass Keep Reading Cathy Glass About the Publisher Certain details in these stories, including names, places and dates, have been changed to protect the family’s privacy. HarperElement An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF www.harpercollins.co.uk and HarperElement are trademarks of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd First published by HarperElement 2013 FIRST EDITION © Cathy Glass 2013 A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library While every effort has been made to trace the owners of copyright material reproduced herein and secure permissions, the publishers would like to apologise for any omissions and will be pleased to incorporate missing acknowledgements in any future edition of this book Cathy Glass asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable 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 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. Find out about HarperCollins and the environment at www.harpercollins.co.uk/green Ebook Edition © APRIL 2013 ISBN: 9780007527441 Version: 2020-07-10

Damaged

A Baby’s Cry

The Night the Angels Came

Also by Cathy Glass

Keep Reading

Cathy Glass

About the Publisher

Cathy Glass

Damaged

The Heartbreaking True Story of a Broken Child

In Britain today, there are over 75,000 children in the care of their local authority. These are the lucky ones. Concealed behind this figure are countless others; defiled, abused and undiscovered by Social Services, often until it’s too late.

This book tells the true story of my relationship with one of these children, an eight-year-old girl called Jodie. I was her foster carer, and she was the most disturbed child I had ever looked after. I hope my story will provide an insight into the often hidden world of foster care and the Social Services.

Certain details, including names, places and dates, have been changed to protect the innocent.

To my family for your continuing love, patience and understanding.

Title Page

Review

Dedication

Chapter One: Emotional Blackmail

Chapter Two: The Road To Jodie

Chapter Three: The Arrival

Chapter Four: A New Little Sister

Chapter Five: Self-Harm

Chapter Six: A Very Troubled Child

Chapter Seven: Contact

Chapter Eight: Julie

Chapter Nine: Disclosure

Chapter Ten: Reporting

Chapter Eleven: Cooking And Cleaning

Chapter Twelve: Monsters

Chapter Thirteen: Integration

Chapter Fourteen: The Park

Chapter Fifteen: Past And Present

Chapter Sixteen: The Spider’s Web

Chapter Seventeen: Nosy Cow

Chapter Eighteen: Fire

Chapter Nineteen: Special Little Girl

Chapter Twenty: Christmas

Chapter Twenty-One: A New Year

Chapter Twenty-Two: The Fox And The Owl

Chapter Twenty-Three: Granddad

Chapter Twenty-Four: Friends

Chapter Twenty-Five: Denial

Chapter Twenty-Six: Links In The Chain

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Silence

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Assessment

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Therapy

Chapter Thirty: Green Grass And Brown Cows

Chapter Thirty-One: High Oaks

Chapter Thirty-Two: Overnight Stay

Chapter Thirty-Three: Goodbye

Chapter Thirty-Four: Progress

Epilogue

Acknowledgements

The phone rang. It was Jill, my link worker from the fostering agency.

‘Cathy, it’s not two carers, but five,’ she said. ‘Five, since coming into care four months ago.’

‘Good heavens.’ I was astonished. ‘And she’s only eight? That must have taken some doing. What’s she been up to?’

‘I’m not sure yet. But Social Services want a pre-placement meeting, to be certain she doesn’t have another move. Are you still interested?’

‘I don’t know enough not to be. When?’

‘Tomorrow at ten.’

‘All right, see you there. What’s her name?’