Page 30 of Don't Believe A Word

SADIE: ‘I’m sorry, it’s still making me quite emotional …’

CRISTY: ‘It’s OK. Just take your time.’

Sadie glanced at Jasper and closed her eyes as he leaned in to kiss her forehead. Seeming to take strength from it, Sadie straightened as she began to speak.

SADIE: ‘I believe this is the note that was found in my pocket after my aunt brought me in from the beach. It says, “Her name is Sasha, she will be two years old on May 14th. I know you are good people. Please take care of her until I can come back for her.”’

Cristy allowed a few moments to pass, giving Sadie time to decide when she was ready to continue.

SADIE: ‘It’s really strange to think I could be looking atmy mother’s handwriting. It makes her seem … real, in a way she didn’t before. I keep wondering what was going through her mind when she wrote it. What, or who, could have made her give me up?’

Sadie put the note down, and sounded almost impatient as she said, ‘Wallowing in questions I can’t possibly answer isn’t going to get us anywhere.’

Her tone, her frustration, belied the lost and bewildered look in her eyes.

Feeling for her, Cristy continued gently.

CRISTY: ‘Do you think she and your aunts ever met?’

SADIE: ‘Obviously, it’s possible.’

Sadie’s eyes dropped to Cristy’s recorder and stayed there.

‘Would you like me to stop?’ Cristy offered.

She shook her head and looked up again.

SADIE: ‘You’re going to ask me if I’ve shown any of this to Mia.’

CRISTY: ‘Have you?’

SADIE: ‘No.’

When Sadie didn’t elaborate Cristy glanced at Jasper who raised a hand in a small gesture, seeming to advise giving her more time.

SADIE: ‘I’m going to show it to her, obviously. I have to now I’ve told you about it. I guess I’m just really nervous about what she’s going to say. How she’s going to explain it.’

JASPER: ‘What we really want to know is when the aunts received all these things – we know the note was in two-year-old Sadie’s coat pocket, but when did the photos and everything else turn up? And why did they keep it and never show it to Sades?’

SADIE: ‘I think – but I have no way of knowing of course – that these photos might have been in the envelope that was posted through the front door that morning.’

CRISTY: ‘If you’re right, we know, at least according to Lottie’s writings, there was no note with them, so what kind of message do you think they were supposed to send?’

SADIE: ‘Maybe they were to let my aunts know that I came from a loving home … But how loving could it have been for them to have just left me on a beach?’

JASPER: ‘We’ve wondered if sending the photographs was meant to keep Sadie’s parents alive for her. Special moments captured on film for her to treasure until they came back.’

SADIE: ‘But they never did come back.’

JASPER: ‘At least not that we know of.’

CRISTY: ‘Do you have any idea yet when the toys might have turned up?’

SADIE: ‘No, but there’s nothing to say they actually came from my parents. For all I know they’re small things that Lottie or Mia might have bought for me and put into the box when I outgrew them.’

CRISTY: ‘But the fact they’re with the photographs …’

SADIE: ‘Leads us to believe they’re part of what’s long been held back from me. It’s true.’