She didn’t bother to turn when she heard someone behind her on the pathway, the heavy thud of footsteps pounding the pavement, she just stepped to the side to let them pass, keeping her head down, her face hidden. Embarrassed that she was crying, the last thing she needed right now was sympathy from a random stranger.
Only, whoever was behind her didn’t pass, instead matching her pace, walking close behind her, so close it felt like it was deliberate.
Curiosity getting the better of her, Rebecca turned, jumping with fright at the sight of the tall man not even a foot away from her, almost touching her. Dressed all in black, his hood pulled tightly around his face so she couldn’t see his features.
Startled by his proximity, Rebecca was filled with a sense of dread.
Her intuition was never wrong. She’d lived her life guided by it and there had been many times it had saved her.
Now, she knew wasn’t safe.
She could feel it.
She tried to quell the rising panic in a last-ditch attempt to make herself believe she was just being paranoid again.
This man had his hood done up tightly around his face because it’s raining. He’s walking fast to get out of the rain. Just like you are.
But she knew that wasn’t true.
And despite not being able to see his eyes properly as he approached, she could feel his stare burning into her.
The shove came from nowhere, a scream leaving her mouth as she lost her balance and sailed through the air, her body slamming hard against the faded grey fence that lined the pathway. Putting her hands out for protection to no avail, her face scraped down the coarse, splintered panel.
Dazed and confused as she lay helplessly on the ground.
Ella.
Pulling herself back up onto her feet, Rebecca rushed to check that Ella was okay, limping as the pain in her knee shot up her thigh. She must have twisted it in the fall.
Lifting up her coat, she sighed with relief to see Ella still sleeping soundly, completely oblivious to anything going on around her.
‘Thank God!’ Rebecca murmured to herself, shaking now, in shock, as she looked back towards the park’s exit. Watching in dismay as the man continued walking as if nothing had happened, as if he hadn’t just attacked her. As if he hadn’t even seen her splayed out on the floor, the pushchair just a few feet away from her as she cowered in shock, her clothes and hands covered in mud.
Rebecca scanned the park in the vain hope of finding a passer-by who might come to her aid. But the park is still empty, the rain acting like a deterrent. She could see a figure on the opposite side of the playing fields, sheltered from the rainfall underneath a row of trees. It’s a woman walking her dog, but she has her back to Rebecca. And just the at the park’s entrance, there’s a man jogging in, but both are too far away to even hear her.
She’d be better off just getting home. She needed to get Ella indoors. They’d both be safe then.
Grabbing the pushchair with two trembling hands, Rebecca hobbled down the path, her head spinning as she tried to make sense of what had just happened.
She’d been attacked? Deliberately pushed?
But the man hadn’t spoken a word to her, and Rebecca hadn’t seen his face.
And then he was gone. Just like that.
Stepping out on to the busy main road, she felt safer now that there were other people around. Rebecca walked as fast as she could despite the pain in her knee and her throbbing head, reaching her street just a few minutes later. At her front door, she made a quick inventory of the street, nothing appeared out of place.
There’s no one there. But she can’t shake the feeling that someone is out there. That they are watching her.
What if the man has followed her home?
Shivering, she twisted the key in the lock and dragged the pushchair inside, slamming the door shut before double locking it behind her. Leaning up against the wall, she closed her eyes, frozen with fear of what could have happened to her and Ella.
Just the thought of someone wanting to harm her, or Ella, makes her feel physically sick.
Her fear of being hurt, of being abused, bringing forth all those buried, suppressed memories that she had stored away, deep inside her mind.
Picking up the phone, her hand shaking as she finds the number. Bursting into tears when the phone is finally answered, she manages just one sentence between her loud, wracking sobs.
‘Jamie. Something bad’s happened. You need to come home!’
Chapter Eleven
‘Rebecca! I can’t get in.’ Shouting through the letter box, Jamie had tried twisting his key in the lock before pushing at the front door, only it wouldn’t budge.
‘It’s double locked,’ Jamie said, eyeing Rebecca’s bare feet through the tiny slit in the door, as they padded down the stairs towards him.
‘Oh, thank God you’re home.’ Opening the door, Rebecca threw herself into his arms.
‘Are you okay? Is Ella okay?’ Jamie asked. He’d been in a meeting with an important client when Rebecca had called, and he’d barely been able to make out what she’d been saying between her anguished sobs. The only words he’d heard clearly were ‘attacked’ and ‘hurt’. He vaguely remembered her begging him to come home but Jamie didn’t need to be asked twice.
He’d never moved so fast in his life, racing across London in record time.
‘She’s asleep, I just put her in her cot. We’re fine. I was just so scared, Jamie. All I kept thinking was, what if something happened to Ella?’
Unable to make out what Rebecca was saying through her sobs, Jamie let out a sigh of relief, just glad that she was okay. Hugging Rebecca to him, he could see how distraught she was, as her body violently shook in his arms. He was glad he’d got here so quickly.
‘You’re safe now. You’re home. Whatever happened, no one can hurt you here.’ Stepping inside the house, Jamie closed the door behind him.
‘Lock it,’ Rebecca insisted, before stepping forward and twisting the key in the lock herself and yanking down the handle to make sure it was done properly.
‘What about the police? Are they on their way?’
‘No. Not yet,’ Rebecca answered, making her way into the kitchen as Jamie followed her, watching as she double checked that the patio door was locked too.
‘Not yet? What are you waiting for?’ Jamie said, taking in the streaks of mud across Rebecca’s knees and dress, the sore looking pink graze across her left cheek. ‘You’re hurt. You need to call them.’
‘There’s no point. It will just be a waste of their time,’ Rebecca said resolutely. She wasn’t going to tell Jamie that she’d already decided not to involve them. ‘It all happened so quickly, I didn’t even get a look at him and there was no one else around. There’s not a single witness. I’ve got nothing to tell them except that I was pushed.’
‘Fuck that, Rebecca. Call them. Whether or not you saw him properly or there are any witnesses, is neither here nor there. That’s their job, call them!’
‘And say what exactly? That I think I was pushed over on purpose?’
‘What do you mean, “you think?” You said you were attacked?’
‘I was. I mean, at least I think it was done on purpose. He was walking close behind me, and when I moved to the side to let him past, he just charged into me. He sent me sprawling to the floor, only when I looked up, he was walking towards the main gates as if nothing had happened. He didn’t say anything, and he didn’t look back. It was as if he hadn’t even seen me.’