FIVE
AMELIE
My first few weeks with the Rook family weren’t as bad as I expected.
Yes, I missed my sister and brother every day, but I managed to keep myself distracted, exploring the house and gardens while trying to remain as invisible as possible.
Not being seen was something I excelled at.
Luckily, there were no further run-ins with Kieran Rook.
Kieran and Jessa were at school during the day; Maisy attended a nursery in the mornings, and Cameron was at work.
That left just me and Vanessa in the house most of the time.
And then Nessa, as she’d asked me to call her, dropped a bombshell.
It had been explained that I had been enrolled at Northridge Academy and was due to start the following week.
One evening after dinner, she gave me a prospectus with loads of courses in it and asked me to read it.
“We wanted to give you more time,” Vanessa told me, her voice too bright, too careful, as she explained the application process for Northridge Academy.
“But social services... they’re insistent.
Education is a legal requirement. As you missed so much high school, participation law kicks in, and you must attend a regular school until you’re eighteen, maybe even nineteen.
” She then began droning on about the law, a concept my parents had clearly ignored.
Before I could ask why I couldn’t leave immediately after my next birthday, she cut me off, explaining that I needed to re-sit an entire year.
After that lecture, my aunt was careful not to lavish attention on me, always knocking on my door before popping her head in, and I appreciated the space.
Partway through the week, she asked me to meet her in the library and gave me an update on my parents. The Crown Prosecution Service had blocked bail. They were keeping both my mother and father locked away. The relief was like a physical blow, a sudden vacuum in my chest.
“The hit-and-run is just the beginning,” Vanessa whispered, her eyes searching mine for a reaction I refused to give. “Police and Social Services... they’re digging into the rest of it.”
“The rest of what?” I’d responded, trying to establish how much she really knew. My aunt was family, but she was also still a stranger.
“The neglect, Amelie, and everything else you suffered in that horrible house,” she replied in a pained voice. My heart hammered a frantic rhythm against my ribs—a trapped bird scrabbling to get out.
So, my new guardians were aware of the abuse. So why did I get the feeling that she wasn’t telling me everything?
As I had looked at her, surrounded by dusty old books lining walls where there were probably a few of her own secrets, a cold thought took root: If they knew about the past, what else were they hiding about the future?
Then came a question that turned my blood to ice. Did I want to visit my mother and father in prison? My answer was a categorical no.
I could see from my aunt's expression that she felt ashamed that she hadn’t known what was going on.
Her body was slumped as we spoke, almost as if she carried the weight of her nieces and nephews' childhoods on her shoulders. But how could she have known when the sisters hadn’t seen each other since I was three?
“If you feel you can’t speak to me, Amelie. You can always call your case worker at any time,” Vanessa had added. I’d already compiled a list of questions to ask Kathy at our Thursday meeting. Most of them were about my siblings.
During our awkward chat, I brought up both Sophie and Adam.
I could tell Vanessa felt bad after failing to bring the others there.
I partly understood why Sophie needed to stay with an experienced family who were used to supporting kids with her condition, but that didn’t answer the question about Adam.
“We did reach out to Adam, Amelie. But his case worker said he’d refused to see us.” I wondered how much effort they’d put into reaching out before they gave in. Adam hadn’t been forthcoming with my calls either. After that strained conversation about my family, I decided not to push it.
My aunt did ask me how I was getting on with Kieran, and I said fine, lying through my teeth.
The events of that first night were constantly on my mind.
After I clashed with Kieran in the kitchen, I started taking a glass of water upstairs with me, so I wouldn’t have to venture out of my bedroom in the dark.
And most nights, I read in my room, usually the prospectus Vanessa had given me, Kieran’s words on repeat in my head.
Cameron left for work every day and didn’t return home until after seven. Vanessa said he owned a large construction company, and that they were in the middle of their year-end. I wondered what he built.
When they were home, the Rook brothers kept themselves to themselves.
Vanessa explained that Lincoln had bought his own apartment, but the sale hadn’t fully gone through, so he sometimes stayed at the house.
He’d been in the army and had loads of army buddies, and from the sounds of things, he either crashed with them or his latest on-and-off girlfriend.
That first night flooded my thoughts again.
Kieran had almost broken my ribs when he mistook me for an intruder.
I’d been shocked when he’d tackled me to the floor, his strong arms wrapped securely around me.
The air had been knocked from my lungs at that first impact, and I’d flailed helplessly, terrified of jarring my back as I fell.
The way Kieran had navigated our landing had been quick thinking on his part: his hands grabbing my waist gave credit to how good his reflexes were.
He must have realised it was me as soon as we touched to have shifted his body so fast, thus reducing the risk of physically injuring me.
As we both hit the floor with our limbs tangled, every inch of his strong frame was flush against mine, and after that initial burst of fear I’d felt, a strange sense of feeling safe.
Like being cocooned in his embrace wasn’t a bad place to be.
I still found my reaction to that closeness confounding when he’d been such a dick to me.
And then over that time that followed, Kieran appeared to be avoiding me.
He wasn’t present at meal times, and it made me feel strange, like something was missing.
When I mentioned his absence to Jessa, she smiled and explained that Kieran didn’t socialise much with the family, unless he had to.
He was at that awkward in-between age. She told me to enjoy the peace while it lasted.
Jessa didn’t go into detail but said there was a historic rift between Kier (as she called him) and their father. From the uncomfortable look on her face, I decided not to pry. It was none of my business. So, he didn’t get on with his parents: at least that was something I could relate to.
Jessa and Maisy clearly didn’t get the memo about giving me space. It was almost like they were on surveillance duty to make sure I didn’t make a run for it. As if I had anywhere to go? Maisy’s attention was sweet, but Jessa made me feel like I was her own personal social experiment.
Halfway through the next week, I felt restless, willing a call from my brother and desperate to meet with Kathy, my case worker, again.
I spent most nights sleeping on the floor in the bedroom I had been assigned.
I still didn’t consider it my space. The bed was much too soft, and each morning I woke up with a backache and a stiff neck.
I couldn’t get comfortable either way; dreams of my past life and my parents rotting in prison, haunting me.
I was also used to sleeping with one eye open, listening to the house breathe, and that habit had followed me, making me edgy. Each night when the lights went off, and the place fell quiet, I was on high alert, even though I sensed no real danger. Well, apart from the danger to my sanity.
On those few occasions when I saw Kieran, I became tongue-tied, tripping over my words like an idiot. I could have blamed not being around boys, but the elder Rook, Lincoln, didn’t make me behave like a bumbling fool.
Nope. Something happened to me in Kieran Rook's company, and it was baffling. The guy had yet to be nice to me, and so why did I feel myself wanting to be close to him, wondering where he was? I wasn’t stupid; I knew some stuff about sex and relationships, but so far there had been nothing affectionate between us.
It was clearly a physical thing, and I didn’t have the time or strength to analyse that.
I needed to focus on getting back to my family.
I kept myself busy during the days, reading and using the tablet Jessa had kindly lent me, possibly with an ulterior motive of tracking my digital footprint, but I knew I had nothing to hide.
I watched some YouTube and listened to music on TikTok, and that was it.
I didn’t Google anything to do with my father, the incident or my parents’ arrest. I knew if it were important, Vanessa or Kathy would tell me.
After further discussions with my aunt and Cameron, I chose a Health, Social Care and Childcare course, which I would start at school. It was an equivalent course to A-levels, and I would also have an English and Maths tutor twice a week; something I wasn’t looking forward to.
One day, I watched Disney cartoons back-to-back with Maisy, both of us tearing up as Bambi’s mother died.
Maisy was such a sweet little thing, everything my sweet Sophie was.
I even allowed her to put some makeup on my face.
The fact that I looked like a circus clown after the big reveal didn’t bother me.
The joyful expression on Maisy’s face was worth the ridicule I would receive if Kieran or his sister saw me.