Gold Digger

Ollie

“There we go,” said Mrs H as she bustled into the room armed with a tray of tea. “Nothing that a nice cuppa can’t sort now is there?”

Lottie gave her a weak smile whilst Hayley just burrowed further into her side on the sofa. After the police arrived, I suggested we all go and sit in the sitting room. Lottie had called them this morning in a flat panic after she found Hayley missing from their flat when she went to wake her up for school. She’d then checked with the school, her neighbours and anywhere else Hayley could have gone and before finding a note Hayley had written to Lottie and left on her bedside table: Gone to the big house to find Florrie . So, Lottie had rushed over here in an Uber, calling the police on the way to let them know she’d found Hayley. The police informed us that they still had to do a welfare check on the child if they were reported missing, hence their arrival at my house.

“So, you are Hayley’s legal guardian?” the policewoman, who’d introduced herself as Mary, asked Lottie.

She cleared her throat and wrapped her arm around Hayley. “Yes, Hayley’s my sister. I’ve been her legal guardian for two years.”

“Does she speak at all?” the other policeman, Grant asked.

“She has selective mutism,” Lottie said quietly.

“Selective?” Mary put in. “Who does she speak to?”

“Me. Only me. But not if I’m with other people. Only if we’re alone.”

“Right,” Grant said slowly. “Learning difficulties?”This is property © NôvelDrama.Org.

I frowned at him. It was beginning to annoy me that they were talking about Hayley as if she wasn’t there, and it was clearly making Lottie very uncomfortable.

“She does not have learning difficulties,” I put in. “She’s halfway through The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe . Does that sound like learning difficulties to you?”

“And how did Hayley get out of the flat in the first place?” Grant asked Lottie, completely ignoring me.

Lottie shifted on the sofa. “Um… our flat’s security isn’t that great.”

I stiffened. I had no idea where Lottie lived, but hearing her security described as not great was like a shot of ice into my veins. Why had I never insisted on knowing where she lived? I was such a self-absorbed arsehole.

“The door has a double lock,” Lottie went on, “but there’s no alarm, and the coded door at the entrance to the block hasn’t worked in ages. I’ve told the management company but they take months to do anything.” Her voice dropped down to an embarrassed whisper that made my breath catch in my chest. “We don’t exactly live in the Hilton. I guess it was easy for her to slip out.”

“Hmm,” Grant’s disapproval of this set-up was made clear with his next statement. “Of course, we’ll have to report this to social services. I presume you have a social worker assigned to your case.”

Lottie nodded, her pale face tightening as she drew Hayley into her side. “Y-yes, we do. I’ll give you her details. B-but…” she swallowed, blinking rapidly in an obvious attempt to push back tears. “Honestly, this has never happened before, and I will talk to the building management about the security there. Hayley wasn’t hurt and?—”

“We’ll relay the facts about what happened as we’re duty bound to do,” Mary said, more softly now in the face of Lottie’s obvious distress. “But we do have to?—”

“Please,” Lottie whispered. The whole room went quiet at the desperation in that one word. She swallowed before she continued. “There’s… been a complication in the last few months. Hayley’s grandparents are back on the scene, and they…” she broke off and shot a quick look at Hayley, obviously not wanting to say too much in front of her. “I just really don’t need any incidents reported to social services negatively right now.”

Grant sighed. “The trouble is that we have let them know the concerns we have with your home environment, and the fact that Hayley ran away to a random house is also concerning. I just can’t?—”

“This house isn’t random,” I said. In the last few minutes, as I watched the panic build in Lottie’s expression, I’d made my decision. I knew that Lottie would never agree to it, so my only chance was a surprise attack. An added benefit was that it would result in a better story for social services. I wasn’t sure what was going on with the grandparents, but the way Hayley had shrunk further into Lottie when they were mentioned only cemented my plan. I stood from my chair and walked over to Lottie, who was looking up at me with wide eyes that went even wider as I sat right next to her on the sofa and took her hand in mine.

“I’m Lottie’s fiancé, you see, so really, this is Hayley’s second home. In fact, this is all just a big misunderstanding, seeing as Hayley didn’t actually run away. She merely relocated herself to her other home. A home in which she will be living very soon anyway. So, your concerns about her fleeing to a random house and the security of her current home are null and void.” I turned to smile down at Lottie, who was still staring up at me but now with her mouth open in shock.

“Ah, well, that does change things,” Mary said with a smile – I’d definitely won Mary over.

“Is that the case, Miss Forest?” asked the more sceptical Grant. “Are you engaged to this gentleman?” Lottie’s mouth opened then closed twice as she transferred her gaze from me to Grant, then back again. I gave her hand a firm squeeze.

“Er…” she started, looking totally bewildered. Luckily for me, Mrs H was a bloody marvel.

“Well, of course they’re engaged,” she said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “And this one’s always around.” She ruffled Hayley’s hair. “Loves my cookies, don’t you, lovie?” Hayley looked up at Mrs H and back at the police officers with wide eyes. But it was only after she looked at her sister with a tilted head and a question in her gaze and something unspoken passed between them that she finally nodded.

“Okay then,” said Mary with a smile. “We’ll still have to file a report, but we won’t include ongoing safety concerns. You’ll need to update your address with social services, of course.”

“Right,” Lottie managed in a high-pitched voice. “Will do.”

I saw them out, and when I came back into the room, the sisters were still huddled together on the sofa. Two pairs of brown eyes came to me as I walked in – one curious, the other furious.

“What the fudge have you done?” Lottie said through her teeth.

“Mrs H,” I said casually, “can you take Hayley back to the kitchen so she can finish her cookies.”

“Come on then, lovie,” Mrs H said with a smile as she reached for Hayley’s hand, but the child just burrowed further into her sister’s side. So I walked over to her and crouched down to her eye level.

“Hey, little stowaway,” I said softly, and her face emerged from the folds of her sister’s jumper to peek at me. “I know that was all a bit scary. But there’s nothing to worry about now. You’ve seen me before, haven’t you? Maybe when your sister was working? That’s how you knew your way here?” She gave a tentative nod confirming my suspicion, and I smiled. “Well, now you don’t have to hide when you come here, right? Because you and your sister are going to live here.”

“Your Grace, I?—”

I shot Lottie a warning look, and she shut her mouth, pressing her lips together in a thin line, her eyes flashing with fury.

“And I’m Ollie, okay? Sometimes, your sister is silly and calls me Your Grace, but that’s not my name. To you, I’m Ollie. And I’ve got a niece about your age. She can tell you what a fantastic uncle I am.” Hayley’s eyes went wide at the mention of Florrie, then she looked away quickly. “Ah, of course,” I said slowly, “you’ve already met Florrie, haven’t you?”

She bit her lip and looked up at her sister.

“It’s okay, lovebug,” Lottie muttered as she stroked Hayley’s hair back from her face.

Hayley turned back to me and nodded. Christ, how often had she hidden in my library? Why the fuck didn’t Lottie tell me that her sister needed to come with her to work? I forced a smile.

“Well, that’s good because you’ll be seeing a lot more of her.”

Then, to my surprise, Hayley did something I’d yet to see – she smiled. My eyebrows went up. “You like Florrie?” She emerged further from her sister to sit up straighter and gave an enthusiastic nod, and I chuckled. I couldn’t think of two more opposite personalities. Florrie was a lot , but clearly that appealed to Hayley. I guess children don’t always need words to get along. And anyway, Florrie likely had enough words for both of them. “Well, that’s great news.” Hayley’s smile got bigger, and my chest tightened. I decided then and there that making this little girl smile was going to be my new favourite pastime.