A DVA NCE R E A DER’S COPY — U NCOR R EC TED PROOF
PRAISE FOR SILENT VICTIM
‘ Silent Victim is fast-paced, twisty, and it chilled me to the bone … I loved every minute of it!’
—Robert Bryndza
‘The very definition of a page-turner. Unreliable narrators mean you never quite know where you stand until it all
builds to a richly satisfying climax. A fantastic psycho-
logical thriller.’
—John Marrs
‘Brilliantly gripping and deliciously creepy. Make sure
you clear your day as you won’t be able to put Silent
Victim down!’
—Sibel Hodge
‘Dark, shocking and utterly compelling.’
—Mel Sherratt
‘This lady writes compelling, atmospheric, unputdown-
able psychological thrillers.’
—Angela Marsons
THE PERFECT MOTHER
O T H E R T I T L E S B Y C A R O L I N E
M I T C H E L L
Individual Works
Paranormal Intruder
Witness
Silent Victim
The DI Amy Winter Series
Truth and Lies
The Secret Child
The DC Jennifer Knight Series
Don’t Turn Around
Time to Die
The Silent Twin
The DS Ruby Preston Series
Death Note
Sleep Tight
Murder Game
THE PERFECT MOTHER
CAROLINE MITCHELL
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2020 by Caroline Mitchell
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
Published by Thomas & Mercer, Seattle
www.apub.com
Amazon, the Amazon logo, and Thomas & Mercer are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates.
ISBN-13: [TK]
ISBN-10: [TK]
Cover design by [TK]
Cover illustration by [TK]
Cover photography by [TK]
Printed in the United States of America
For Isaac
With what price we pay for the glory of
motherhood
— Isadora Duncan
PROLOGUE
Roz
2019
I gently rubbed my stomach. It was hard to fathom that
behind the wall of expanding flesh beat the heart of my
little girl. She was more than an accidental pregnancy.
She was keeping me alive.
If only I had listened to Dympna when she warned me
that I was making a mistake. Tears welled in my eyes as I
thought of my friend, so many miles away. How different
my life would have been if I had taken her advice. Guilt
sucked me in like quicksand, dragging me down until I
could barely breathe. Was it the lure of New York that
first drew me in? Or the empty promises that were made?
I wiped away my tears with the back of my hand. How
could I have predicted how this was going to turn out?
‘It’s OK,’ I whispered to my unborn child. ‘I’ll keep
you safe.’
I reined in my thoughts in case my baby sensed my
fear. There was movement as she pressed against my
ribcage. The thought of her entry into the world was
giving birth that worried me; it was what would happen
the second she was born. I pressed my hand against my
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Caroline Mitchell
mouth to stem the scream building in my throat. Keep
it together. My self-preservation depended on me being calm, focused and ready.
A door slammed on the floor above and a muffled
argument ensued. I knew it was about me. My accom-
modation was luxurious, but not soundproof, and I had
learned a lot about the people up there. Slowly, I crept
around the apartment and fetched a chair. As I dragged
it to the air vent, its legs scraped the wooden floor. I bent my knees as I stepped up on to it, trying to hold it still.
It was risky, but this was the best place to hear what was
going on above. Holding my breath, I listened for key
words. They thought I couldn’t hear them, but I knew
what they were capable of. I snuffled through my conges-
tion. The air was too dry, too cold, and goose bumps rose
on my skin. The argument descended into soft murmurs.
A decision had been made.
I climbed down from my chair, every nerve-ending
tingling as adrenalin coursed through my veins. It was now
or never. Footsteps crossed the floor above my head. My
hand trembled as I reached for the knife carefully hidden
beneath the folds of my maternity dress. It was small but
sharp enough to pierce skin. What choice did I have? My
heart reverberated against the wall of my chest and my
breath came in short, quick gasps. They were coming.
There wasn’t a second to waste. I tiptoed to the side
of my wardrobe, my fingers clasped tightly around the
knife. The lift whirred as it escorted its passengers to my floor. A ding signalled that they were here. I held my
breath as the lift doors slid open.
It was time.
xii
CHAPTER ONE
Roz
October 2018
‘How far apart do your legs have to be for a thigh gap?’
Wearing her tightest skinny jeans and vest top, Dympna
surveyed herself in the full-length mirror in my room. I
lay stretched out on my bed, my head too full of my own
worries to pay much attention.
‘It’s gone. It’s definitely gone,’ she moaned, mourning
the loss of that all-important space between her thighs.
‘I mean, look at me, I’m a whale!’
She was not a whale. Red-haired and feisty, she was
beautifully rounded, and I envied her curves. We had
been friends ever since she shared her sandwich with me
in school at the age of four. People said we made a striking pairing – her with her red hair, me with my white-blonde
locks tumbling past my shoulders. Rhubarb and custard,
they called us, after the sweets. We were never apart. We
moved on to secondary school, sat through mass for an
hour in church every Sunday and both got housekeeping
jobs in the same Jurys hotel. It was a natural progression
for us to share a flat; but the rent in Dublin was astro-
nomical compared to my hometown in Ferbane, and I
didn’t have the heart to tell my best friend that I had just 1
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lost my job. If only that’s all it was. There was far worse on the horizon for me. My stomach rolled over as the
implications punched me like a fist to the gut.
‘You’re grand,’ I said, taking a slice of pizza from
the box on the bed. Another wave of nausea hit me as I
nibbled on the crust. I’d barely been able to eat since I’d discovered the news.
‘I suppose you’re right.’ Dympna sighed, my mattress
bouncing as she plopped down beside me. She grabbed
a slice of my pizza. ‘Besides, the curvy look is in. Kim
Kardashian’s bum is twice the size of mine.’
‘Then you’ve got some ground to cover. You’d bet-
ter finish the lot.’ I laughed as I spoke, but I was numb
inside. Dropping the pizza slice back in the box, I realised I couldn’t cope with it on my own. ‘Oh, God,’ I gasped
as a lump rose in my throat. ‘What am I going to do?’
Dympna’s mouth dropped open and she froze
mid-chew.
Dympna was always the strong one. After her family
moved to Dublin, she encouraged me to go, too. She’d
drive. I, on the other hand, was creative, scatty, and too
impetuous for my own good. But I had grown up since
moving in with her, and developed a routine. Now here
I was, drowning in guilt, trapped in a no-win situation.
Panic consumed me as I cried like a child, big fat sobs
clogging my throat.
The takeaway box slid to the floor as Dympna wrapped
her arms around me, and I realised her slice of pizza was
sticking to my hair.
‘What is it? What’s wrong?’ she demanded, squeez-
ing tightly. I garbled that I needed some air to breathe.
Dympna had always been a hugger. It was her answer to
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The Perfect Mother
everything. She even hugged a teacher once when she
broke down in class. Hug now, ask questions later. It was lucky that she was a girl. It’s true, though, it did make me feel better. But by now my hair smelt like yesterday’s
cheesy feast. I noticed from the corner of my eye that
some of my blonde strands were streaked tomato red.
Disentangling myself from her grip, I prepared to give
her the news I had not yet come to terms with myself.
‘I’m pregnant,’ I blurted, unable to look her in the
eye. I stared at my chipped nail varnish as I waited for the telling-off. The last thing I needed was a lecture about
contraception. It had been a one-off; I’d been too drunk
to exercise any form of self-control.
‘Merciful hour!’ Dympna had picked up the term from
her mother and it was usually reserved for catastrophic
news. She looked at me with complete and utter shock.
‘When? Who? How far are you gone? Are you keeping
it? What about your mam and stepdad … do they know?’
Her questions fired like bullets, making my head
spin. I consoled myself that at least she had not asked the question I dreaded.
‘Who’s the father?’
There it was. My chin wobbled as my tears threatened
to overflow again. At least if I was sobbing, I couldn’t be expected to respond, but I knew Dympna would keep
digging away until I did.
‘It was a one-night stand,’ I said, grabbing a tissue
and blowing my nose. ‘And before you say it, I know. I
was drunk and stupid, and the condom must have split.’
‘And you weren’t on the pill?’ was Dympna’s instant
response. ‘Are you nuts?’
Dympna’s judgemental words made me feel even
worse. I was not the type of person to sleep around. I
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Caroline Mitchell
was feeling lousy because I was struggling financially,
and when he said he’d help out, well, I melted. It was a
long time since any fella had cared about me like that.
But my friendship with Dympna meant more to me than
anything. She must never find out who he was.
‘If I wanted a lecture, I would have told my mother.’
I sniffled. Another person who could never know.
‘Sorry.’ Dympna’s forehead scrunched as she tried to
work a way out of this mess. ‘What are you going to do?’
I delivered a weak smile, twisting my tissue, now
sodden with tears. I had thought about nothing else
since a home pregnancy test confirmed my worst fears.
Aged twenty-four, I was old enough to raise a baby, but
I wasn’t ready to be a mother. I wanted to travel the
world, to draw on my experiences and create portraits
of the people I met. My artistic nature made me long for
adventure. I wanted a life outside Ireland and the bubble
I grew up in.
Dympna looked at me hopefully. She’d love nothing
better than for me to keep the baby. We’d had several
conversations about what kind of strollers we’d buy when
we became mothers one day. Dympna wanted something
modern and snazzy, while I mused about owning a Silver
Cross pram. But it was her dream to have kids sooner rather than later, not mine; her relationship with Seamus
had gone from strength to strength in the last six months.
The last thing I wanted was to put some poor unfortunate
baby through a childhood like mine.
‘I’m not getting an abortion,’ I said, clearing my throat.
That much I was adamant about. I had nothing against
women who choose that path, but I had sat through too
many ‘burn in hell’ Sunday sermons to consider it an
option for me.
4
The Perfect Mother
Dympna nodded knowingly. Father Vincent had put
the fear of God in her, too. It was a spittle-laced subject the Catholic priest was terrifyingly passionate about.
‘So you’re keeping it?’ Her face brightened. ‘We could
rear it together. Like in the film. Three Men and a Baby. It would be great craic!’ Dympna was proud of her vintage
video cassette collection and insisted we watch one old
movie a week on her battered VCR.
‘Except we’re girls, we’ve no money and we both have
to work.’ I shook my head. ‘Not that I have great job pros-
pects now.’ There was a last resort: tell my mother. I didn’t need to factor my father in – he ran out on us years ago.
‘Are you going home then?’ Dympna slid her tongue
over her teeth, and I knew she was doing the maths. If
I left her high and dry, she wouldn’t be able to afford to
stay in our flat on her own.
‘No way,’ I said, pulling a face. ‘You can’t tell Mammy
either. She’s not to know.’
‘But…’
‘I mean it. Swear on your life.’
Dympna crossed her heart with her finger. It was
something we’d done since childhood and we had never
broken our vows. I prayed she wouldn’t ask me to fess
up about the baby’s father. She would never speak to me
again if she knew.
‘There’s one more option.’ Flicking back my hair, I
reached for my battered laptop and opened it up. I brought
up the ‘Miracle-Moms’ site I’d bookmarked earlier in the
week. Guilt consumed me as I recalled how I’d spent my
last €500 on registration costs instead of rent. But the fees ensured the site’s exclusivity; otherwise all sorts of people would be trying to fob their babies off. Surely it would b
e worth it if it helped me out of this mess? At first, it had 5
Caroline Mitchell
seemed crazy. The very thought of giving up my firstborn
made me turn cold. But what choice did I have? My pri-
orities lay firmly with the cluster of cells growing inside me. More than anything, they deserved a decent start in
life. I’m not saying that money buys you happiness, but it
certainly would have improved my upbringing no end.
No child should have to go to bed cold and hungry, or
listen to their mother cry themselves to sleep at night.
Besides, Mam had finally met someone nice. She was
settled now, with her own life to lead.
‘What do you think?’ I said, watching Dympna for a
reaction as I scrolled through the page.
‘An adoption site? In America?’ She peered at the
screen, her red curls shadowing her face. ‘Hang on … they
buy your baby?’ She pushed my hand aside and clicked on a page. ‘Will you look at all these bumps – it’s like
Tinder for pregnancies.’
‘Not buy,’ I said sharply, for fear of being talked out
of it. ‘The couple pay my expenses. If we like each other,
they fly me over and put me up until the baby is born.’
‘Then pay you a wad of money when you leave the baby
there,’ Dympna snorted. ‘Have you checked them out?’
‘The site vets all the couples, so I don’t need to worry
on that front.’
They vetted participants too. The pinprick on the
crease of my inner arm was the result of the private blood
test I’d had to take. It not only confirmed my pregnancy,
but the potential sex of the baby. Not that I’d wanted to
know; it wasn’t mine to keep, after all. I straightened my
legs, which were fizzing with pins and needles. My size
ten jeans felt tight around my midriff, which was stupid
as I was only eight weeks pregnant and hadn’t gained a
pound.
6
The Perfect Mother
I gave my friend a warning glance. ‘You can’t tell a
soul. I’ll say I’ve got a new job … an internship. That
will cover the six months I’m over there. They’ll pay me
enough to cover my rent here, too.’
‘But you’ve still got to carry the baby. Can you really
give it up? What if you don’t like the couple? What if the
baby’s disabled? Would they want it then?’
‘Disabled?’ My voice rose an octave as I clambered off
the bed. ‘I thought you’d support me, but all you’re doing