Free Promise by Sarah Armstrong

completely at Anna’s mercy. Anna took a shaky breath and tried to smile. ‘When Mummy gets back, I’ll take you home.’
    Anna traced the rough edge of the tiles on the side of the bath. She had to know. ‘Was Mummy there when Harlan put your head in the toilet?’
    Charlie didn’t move for a moment, then she gave a small nod.
    In that quiet bathroom, Anna was filled with a terrible, helpless dread that she would be sending Charlie next door to her death, and later, when the girl was dead, when she was the subject of a few indignant newspaper articles like the one Anna read about the little Newcastle boy, Anna would look back on this moment when Charlie sat trustingly in her bath, the orange washer on her lap.
    Charlie rested her hand on Anna’s arm. Her fingers were cold. ‘I don’t want to go home.’
    Someone had to take this girl away from Harlan and Gabby. To take someone else’s child was wrong. But what if the wrong thing – the illegal thing – was also the right thing?
    What if taking a child from its mother was the lesser of two evils?
    Anna helped the girl out of the bath and dried her. Anna’s mind spun and her cheeks fizzed with heat, with fear. Could she go through with this? She took hold of Charlie’s hands. Such small fingers. ‘You don’t have to go home. You’re
not
going home. You’re coming with me.’
    Charlie gazed back at her and gave a small nod. Her face seemed stripped of emotion but her eyes were busy, flicking from Anna’s face and then around the bathroom.
    In her bedroom, Anna found a pair of her shorts that Charlie could wear, with a ribbon for a belt. Then she heard the rumble of the ute as it pulled into the driveway.
    Gabby.
    Through the kitchen window, Anna watched Gabby walk up the front steps. Anna ran to the bathroom, where Charlie stood on the mat.
    ‘Quick,’ said Anna, holding out the shorts. ‘Into these.’
    Her hands shook as she tied the ribbon and dragged the girl’s singlet over her head.
    ‘Come on.’
    As she guided Charlie to the front door, she picked up her phone and handbag, and the toy rabbit.
    Her car was parked on the street right out the front, in a direct line of sight from Gabby and Harlan’s house. Their front yard was empty but how long would it take for Gabby to guess where Charlie was?
    ‘Let’s run to my car. It’s the silver one just there.’
    Charlie didn’t respond, so Anna gripped the girl’s hand and hustled her down the path and over the nature strip. Hot fear shot through her as she helped the girl slide onto the back seat.
    ‘Quick, quick,’ she said. ‘I’ll fix the seatbelt later.’
    It seemed to take ages to open the driver’s door and slide the key into the ignition. There was still no sign of Gabby or Harlan. She started the car, her foot shaking on the accelerator, and pulled out. She drove straight ahead, towards Wentworth Avenue.
    At the corner, she glanced in the rear-view mirror, half-expecting to see Harlan’s ute behind her, but the street was empty. Charlie sat up on the back seat in Anna’s too-big shorts, Bunny on her lap.
    ‘Why don’t you lie down on the seat and have a snooze?’ said Anna. The girl would be less visible that way. Charlie obediently lay down as Anna turned left onto Wentworth.
    ‘What’s your name again?’ the girl asked.
    Oh god. Charlie didn’t even remember her name. The girl was letting a stranger drive away with her.
    ‘Anna. My name’s Anna.’
    She was driving too fast. She slowed and followed a delivery truck up to the lights. Every second that passed landed her in deeper shit. She had just kidnapped someone’s child, for god’s sake. She should turn around now. But that would mean delivering Charlie back to that man. Even now, with a few kilometres between them, Anna could feel him at her back. How must it have been for Charlie to live in that house with him, knowing that her mother would not protect her? She glanced back at the girl.
    ‘I’m sleepy,’ said