Chapter 75

‘Inspector, will you please tell me what's going on?' Katie asked as she took a seat in interview room one. ‘You come to my house for the second time in the same day and insist I come with you without offering me one word of explanation.'

Yeah, cos I'm still wondering where to start, Kim thought.

‘Katie, a lot has happened since we spoke earlier. We have answers to many of your questions.'

‘I don't understand. What answers? I only saw you a few hours ago.'

Kim took a deep breath. ‘A woman appeared here earlier today claiming to be the real Katie Hawne.'

Katie's mouth opened in shock.

‘She has the same birth certificate as you and has been living with her grandparents.'

‘My family?'

Kim shook her head. Oh, this was going to get complicated. ‘She is Sheryl's biological daughter and was abandoned when she was a few weeks old. She has no memory of Sheryl, and her life is good.'

‘But that makes no sense. Why would Sheryl abandon her own child and then adopt me?'

And this was where it got even trickier. Kim hoped Katie was strong enough to take everything she was about to learn, but she was entitled to the truth. All of it.

‘Katie, you weren't adopted. You were abducted,' she said, putting Woody's instructions out of her head.

‘Wh-What?' she cried, pushing back her chair. She stood and then paced as though she could out-walk the truth. ‘No, you're wrong. I must have been adopted. Sheryl would never have done that. No. I'm sorry. Oh God, I feel sick,' she said, sitting back down.

‘It's true. You were stolen when you were just a few months old from a place called Ilkley. Sheryl abandoned her own baby and took you instead. She moved from Huddersfield with you and kept the secret for years.'

‘But weren't the police looking for her?' Katie asked.

‘Sheryl was an adult who had left of her own accord. There was no reason to link her name to the case of a missing baby twenty miles away. To be safe, she never let you do national pageants or anything where your name would appear in the press or bring unwanted attention. It was actually that article you did with Tracy Frost that brought Sheryl's real daughter here.'

‘Oh my God, you're telling the truth, aren't you?'

Kim nodded. ‘I wouldn't have told you if we weren't sure.'

Katie shook her head as though she could shake sense into what she was being told. Upon learning that she and Sheryl weren't related, her mind had instantly fixed on adoption. No way could she have prepared for this.

‘What's she like?' Katie asked. ‘The other Katie?'

‘She's staying at a local hotel, and she'd like to meet you. Obviously, you're not related…'

‘But it feels like we are,' Katie said, frowning, ‘it feels like we're family. I've been Sheryl's daughter for twenty-five years. She'll have questions, and only I have the answers. I feel somehow like I just gained a sister.'

In a strange way, Kim could understand it. As if that wasn't enough, the next part was going to blow her mind. She was trying to think of a way to lead into the even bigger news when the woman opposite saved her the trouble.

‘So we're both Katie Hawne?'

Kim shook her head. ‘No, that was a borrowed identity. Your birth name was Rebecca. Rebecca Anderson.'

Katie allowed the name to register in her mind before puzzlement rested on her face. ‘How do you know that?'

‘I told you in the car we'd been busy. One of my colleagues has tracked down your real mom, who loved you very much and has never given up hope of finding you.'

A sob escaped from Katie's lips as the tears rolled over her cheeks. ‘You mean it? I have a mother – a real one?'

Kim nodded.

‘No, no. It's too much to process,' she said, dropping her head into her hands. ‘So many emotions, and I don't know what to do with them.'

And that was exactly what Kim had been afraid of, but she couldn't stop now.

‘Katie, we have counsellors available. It's a lot to take in, but we can offer you support in the next stage of?—'

She shook her head. ‘Where are they?'

Katie had to know it all so she could decide what was going to happen next.

Woody's words passed through her brain on a ticker tape: DNA, safeguarding, disastrous. But there was no doubt in Kim's mind. Having seen the Andersons, especially Katie's resemblance to her brother, she knew wholeheartedly that they were related.

‘Your mum is in the room next door. Would you like to meet her?'

Katie raised her head from her hands. Kim had no idea what her answer was going to be.