Shelby stepped back, knowing instinctively by the woman’s deranged, possessed expression that Imelda would do it, too. That she wasn’t just making empty threats. She’d taken Riley. She’d snatched him from the hospital. And she was still claiming that it wasn’t him. That it wasn’t Riley, when Shelby knew that it was.
‘I don’t understand,’ Shelby said, trying to make sense of the madness she’d stumbled into. If she hadn’t come here tonight, if she hadn’t knocked, she’d never have found him. ‘You’ve got your own baby, why take mine?’
‘This?’ Imelda said, turning the knife and plunging it into her stomach. Shelby screamed out in horror as the knife penetrated her bump.
But Imelda didn’t flinch in pain and there wasn’t any blood. There was no reaction at all, except laughter as Imelda’s cackle filled the room.
‘Had you fooled, didn’t I?’ she smirked. ‘It’s good, isn’t it? So realistic. Even the midwife at the hospital didn’t realise.’
She had only shoved the fake bump that she’d bought online back on again when Shelby had knocked at the door. She didn’t need it any more now that she had Jason, but it would have come in handy until she’d been able to claim that she’d given birth, in a few days’ time. When she’d presented the world with her newborn son, Jason. And no one would have suspected. No one would have questioned her. Only Shelby had fucked that all up now.
‘Why?’
‘Why?’ Imelda laughed then. A nasty, vindictive snigger. ‘WHY?’
She edged towards Shelby, the knife between them. The sharp edge of the blade aimed towards Shelby. One false move and she’d lunge at her. Because Jason was hers, and this bitch was not going to show up here and just take him.
‘Why should you be the one to get everything handed to you on a plate?’ Imelda spat, furious now. ‘Because you’re the pretty one? The skinny one? Because you’re mummy and daddy’s little rich girl? Why should you get a man like Ashley who you don’t even appreciate?’ Imelda narrowed her eyes. ‘All you do is bitch and moan and gripe about him. It’s no wonder he never wants to go home to you…’ Imelda had heard Shelby’s countless snipes and comments about Ashley’s infidelities, fed to her in rage on the few occasions that they’d stopped and chatted since she’d moved in to the flat. As well as having to endure the couple’s numerous arguments like the rest of the neighbours on this floor. ‘Why not? Why don’t I deserve some happiness too?’
‘You do, Imelda,’ Shelby said. ‘Of course, you do. But this isn’t the way to go about it. Riley needs his mum. He needs me.’
Calling Imelda’s bluff then, Shelby went for her child, her hands sinking down into the cot to pick him up and hold him. Just as a horrific pain penetrated her side. Like a punch. Winding her. And as she moved her hand to question the pain, she saw the blood.
‘You stabbed me?’ Shelby said, suddenly light-headed. Realising she’d underestimated Imelda’s determination to keep her child.
‘Put him down. Now. I told you. You’re not taking him from me,’ Imelda spat. Her eyes flashed malice. ‘I should have killed you the first time I had the opportunity.’
‘It was you?’ Shelby said, doing as she was told and placing Riley back down in the cot. She could feel the blood dripping through her fingers as she put pressure on her wound, like they did on TV. To stop people from bleeding out. ‘You attacked me? You killed that other pregnant woman? That was all you?’
Shelby braced herself for another attack, just as the room was filled with the sound of police sirens floating up from the road. The dark sky outside the window lit up with a bright flashing blue. From the noise it sounded like several patrol cars had just pulled up downstairs. Shelby didn’t know if they were here for her or not, but it didn’t matter. Because Imelda believed that they were. That Shelby had somehow led the police to her.
‘I told you, no one’s taking him from me. He’s mine!’ Imelda cried, snatching Riley up and making her way out of the door in a panic. Ready to run. The knife still in her hand.
All Shelby could do was scream.
49
Lucy and Holder ran up the stairs towards the flat where Jay-Jay Andrews had told them he’d followed the woman back to, after he’d watched from the shadows while she’d attacked Shelby. The same woman he’d since seen leaving the hospital with Riley Cooke. And the very same woman whom Shelby Cooke had already unwittingly identified from the hospital footage as Imelda George, her neighbour and friend.
But when they reached the floor and flung the stairwell door open, both rushing out on to the balcony, the last person they expected to see was Shelby Cooke, standing there, doubled over as if she was in pain. Tears were streaked down her face, but much worse, blood was pumping out from a wound on her side that she was covering with her hand.
Lucy stared over to the balcony, where Imelda George sat perched on the concrete wall. Her legs were dangling over the edge, and in her arms was a crying baby Riley.
‘Don’t come another step closer,’ Imelda screeched, wild with panic and fury at being cornered by these people. These people wanted to take her baby from her. They wanted to make her suffer for all that she’d done in order to be with him.
‘Imelda. You don’t have to do this,’ Lucy said, holding out a hand for Holder to step back and go downstairs and alert their colleagues of the situation. Shelby was going to need an ambulance. And they were going to need a fire crew here, too, to prepare the ground, in case Imelda went through with her threat and jumped. Lucy just hoped that
