The door opened and Rachel froze when she heard Amy saying to Gary, “She’s fast asleep. That stuff really knocked her out. Shame she’ll miss her date with the schoolboy.”

There was so much nastiness and bitterness in Amy voice when she said this that Rachel was terrified. She kept her eyes tightly closed.

“See, I told you it would work. Little loser,” Amy went on. “What I would have done if I had her opportunities. Now it’s time to phone mommy and tell her we have her little girl and that if she wants her back she needs to pay for what she did to me all those years ago.”

“I have to go,” said Gary. “Just call me when you need me to take you to pick up the cash.”

There was silence in the room, but Rachel could hear Amy breathing. Then she heard her say, “Mrs Rylands.” Amy was speaking to her mom on the phone!

Rachel felt like shouting when she heard Amy say her mother’s name. If ever she needed her mother it was now. But she lay still and silent and started to pray that she would be found and rescued from Amy and Gary. How had she been so stupid not to notice something was wrong? Why didn’t she question why Amy bothered to befriend her? Why they would buy a stranger an expensive dress?

She should have listened to her mom and had nothing more to do with Amy. Now it was too late.

“This is Amy du Plessis…Oh, you know who I am?” There was silence while Amy listened for a few seconds. Then, “You want your daughter back? Which one?” Amy laughed loudly and sarcastically. “I’m sure you don’t want me back. Remember me, the daughter you gave away? You didn’t even look at me. That’s what the nurse told me… yes I found the nurse who delivered me in the hospital. She told me all about you. You were seventeen, too young, from a respectable family. It would have been a scandal. I would have been a scandal, especially with a father like that. A drug addict lowlife.”

Rachel listened, shocked. She knew she couldn’t move. If she moved Amy might do something terrible to her.

“No lady, you listen to me,” continued Amy in a harsh voice. “I get to call the shots today. I will tell you exactly what I want you to do. You are going to pay for what you did. If you want your little Rachel back, you’ll listen to me! No, I don’t want to meet to talk about this. Shut up and listen.

“Let me tell you something about your precious daughter. I have video footage of her at Twisters Nightclub. Oh, you should have seen the way the men looked at her when she danced. That’s what I had to do to make money. Dance… and more. Much more… And I tell you, miss Rachel enjoyed the cocktails, and the attention we gave her.

“She’s not hurt… no… but she will be if you don’t listen to me… You are sorry for what you did?” shouted Amy. “I don’t think so…Let’s see how sorry you really are. Do you know how badly I was treated by Mrs du Plessis? No of course you don’t. She didn’t love me. She never once told me she loved me. And then when she had real children of her own she chucked me out to fend for myself. She said I was an ungrateful, stupid, no-good. She was jealous of me and her new husband. I was on the street!”

Amy’s voice broke. Now she was crying. Part of Rachel wanted to comfort her. Was this true what she was saying? Was this the thing that Rachel’s mom regretted? Her secret? Who else knew she had another daughter?

The sudden knock on the door was loud. Amy stopped talking. Rachel opened her eyes. Amy looked straight at her then moved slowly to the door.

“Who is it? Is that you Gary?” She was still holding the cellphone.

“Open up!” Amy opened the door – and there stood two police officers, and her parents. Rachel’s mom was holding her cellphone.

“Where is she?” she cried out as she rushed inside the apartment. Rachel leapt off the bed and into the lounge. She ran into her mother’s arms.

Amy slumped down on the couch.

“Jasmine, my youngest daughter, told me Rachel had been on Facebook. We tracked you down, Amy. Just like you tracked us down after all these years. We went to the Club. It took a bit of cash, but they told us where we’d find you. That Gary didn’t want any trouble with the police.”

Then Patricia tried to touch Amy’s arm. She said softly, “I think you meant for us to find you, Amy.”

“What I want from you is money! Not love that comes much too late.” Amy shook her head violently, but she was sobbing now.

“I know you must be angry.”

“Anger doesn’t come close.”

“How could you do such a thing? Kidnap our daughter?” Rachel’s dad glared at Amy.

“You can go now,” said Mrs Rylands, turning to the police.

“You don’t want to press charges?”

Mrs Rylands shook her head. When the police had gone she sat down next to Amy. “I didn’t know what had happened to you. I was very young. All I can say is that I am deeply sorry. I know it won’t change what happened to you.”

Tears were streaming down Amy’s face. “Why didn’t you look for me?”

“I’ve found you now. I can help you.”

“I don’t know if you can. I’m in too deep with Gary. You should leave before he gets back and finds you here at his house. He’s powerful. I owe him money.”

“I can help you kick the drugs,” said her mother. “There are drugs, aren’t there?” Amy nodded. “I can send you to rehab. I know a good place.”

Amy shook her head.

“She won’t come,” Rachel’s dad said. “Let’s go Patricia. We need to take Rachel home.”

“Are you sure you won’t come with us?” said Mrs Rylands, pleading.

Amy looked confused. She seemed like a little girl suddenly – a girl in need of her mother. All the sophistication had gone. She looked helpless.

“Are you not sorry for what you did?” Rachel’s father shouted, still angry.

But Patricia Rylands spoke quietly: “You know our address and number. I will be waiting for you. ”

As Rachel and her mom and dad were leaving the black Mercedes with tinted windows sped past them. Gary was going back to the apartment. Rachel didn’t want to think of what would happen to Amy when he found out no money had been handed over.

“I hope she phones,” said Rachel. “I know what she did was frightening and bad, but she can be nice. She was nice to me. I believed her…”

“We can’t force her to do anything,” said her mom. “She has our number. Perhaps she’s not ready yet. She might never be, Rachel.”

On Monday at school Amy told Simon that she would never have stood him up if it she could have prevented it. But there had been an emergency, a family drama. “I’m sorry – it’s a long story.”

“I’m listening,” said Simon. And he did. Rachel told him everything, even how she felt about him and Linda dancing together.

“Perhaps ballet isn’t for you?” he said, sounding genuinely concerned.

“Perhaps not,” said Rachel. “That, or I need to stop eating junk food.”

* * * * *

Every evening when Rachel’s mom got home and the phone rang she would rush to pick it up. They would all listen. They were waiting for the call from Amy. Months passed, and there was no word from her.

Meanwhile Rachel had started a contemporary and street dance class and had found her groove.

One evening she took Simon to Gary’s club, but the club had changed hands. There was no sign of Amy.

Then the newspaper arrived on their doorstep on weekend. There was Gary on the front page. He was on trial for fraud, drug dealing and the murder of two escorts from his agency.

“What if one of them is Amy mom?” Rachel felt like she had been punched in the stomach. She felt ill. “It doesn’t say the names.”

“There’s nothing we can do,” her mom told her after she phoned the police. They can’t give out the names yet. There are autopsies to be done and…” She started to cry.

The waiting was terrible.

A few days later the phone rang. Rachel picked it up. It was Amy. “I want to come home,” she said.

* * *

Tell us what you think: What do you think will happen with Amy and Rachel’s family? Do you think they will be able to work things out?

The End