Chapter 25
25
When the police had tried to suggest that Danni and Charlie wait at the hospital for the return of their son, she’d told them in no uncertain terms what she thought of that idea. There wasn’t a force on earth that could have stopped her getting to him. The message must have got through, because the detective inspector who’d been leading the hunt for the kidnapper had agreed that they would be taken to the hotel by the police. The tide was too high for the island to be accessible by road, and a police vessel had been dispatched to the harbour to meet them there. But Danni would have swum across to the island if she’d had to.
‘You don’t think there’s any chance they’ve made a mistake, do you?’ Her teeth were chattering, as Charlie took her hand to help her off the boat.
‘None and he’s going to be back in your arms in the next few minutes. Let’s go and get him.’ As soon as they were both on land, they started to run, hand-in-hand, towards the hotel. The police officers with them didn’t even try to tell them to slow down, and they were running too, all of them desperate to know that the reports about the baby being unharmed were true.
‘Danni!’ Wendy’s daughter called her name, as they charged through the doors of the hotel. She was holding the baby in her arms and he was sleeping, blissfully unaware of all the drama of the last few hours.
‘Oh darling.’ Taking the baby from Alice, Danni drank in every millimetre of her little boy, with even more wonder than she had in the first moments after he was born, as Charlie put his arms around them both. But she had to say the words out loud to really believe they were true. ‘He’s fine, he’s absolutely fine.’
‘He is and he’s never going to be taken away from us again.’
‘I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.’ The voice of the woman in front of her made Danni’s head shoot up. A police officer was holding on to the woman’s arm, keeping her back from Danni and Charlie, and another officer had stepped between them, probably out of fear that one of the newly reunited parents might launch themselves at Chloe. In the time the baby had been missing, when Danni couldn’t be certain whether he was dead or alive, she’d known without doubt that she was capable of murder if he had come to any harm. But standing there, with him safely in her arms, looking at the broken-hearted woman in front of her who’d never get to take her own son home, all she felt was pity.
‘Don’t make the situation any worse, Chloe.’ The police officer who already had a tight grip on her arm, pulled her further away from Danni and Charlie.
‘She’s not making it worse.’ The force of Danni’s words surprised her. She couldn’t tell Chloe it was okay, because what she’d put them through had been the most traumatic thing she could ever have imagined. She couldn’t even say for sure yet whether she forgave her, but she needed Chloe to know that she didn’t want her to suffer any more than she already had, so she turned to face her. ‘I know you’ve been through hell too and I really hope you get the help you need.’
‘Thank you.’ Some of the tension seemed to leave Chloe’s face, and she dropped her gaze as the officers led her away.
‘I’m never going to ask for anything again; you and Caleb are all I’ll ever want.’ Danni looked up at Charlie, as he raised his eyebrows.
‘Caleb?’ It was a name Charlie had suggested a few months before, and Danni hadn’t been sure. But she’d looked up the meaning at the time, and now she couldn’t think of anything more fitting.
‘It means the whole of my heart, and that’s what the two of you have got. I love you both so much.’ Danni leant into Charlie, the utter joy she felt to have her son back tinged by only one thing. ‘I wish I could take back the things I said when we realised Chloe had taken him.’
‘I love you too, and none of that matters. All I care about is that we’ve got him back and I’ll never stop being grateful.’ Charlie kissed her and, even though they were far from alone in the hotel foyer, she didn’t care. She had her boys, the life she was terrified she might have lost for good was hers for the taking, and she was just as determined as Charlie never to take it for granted again.