It was approaching home time at Oakfield primary school and the play ground was quickly filling up with parents.
A woman stood underneath the old oak tree, just outside the rusty school gates. Unlike the other parents, she wasn't there to pick up her children. She was there in the hope that she would catch a mere glance of her daughter.
Life is so unfair… She thought to herself. I just fell in love… what's so wrong with that?
She watched in despair as the infants started to disperse from the school. She envied the other parents who stood with beaming faces, hugging their children as they approached. She knew She would never get the chance to greet her child like that.
Her eyes were suddenly drawn to a little girl who was stood with a teacher just inside the door. She was too far away to be seen clearly but she could just make out two dark pigtails and a beautiful olive-toned face.
My little zoe! She thought, as a wide smile spread across her face. She had given birth to Zoe five years earlier and had instantly fallen in love with her daughter, but due to the circumstances Zoe had been taken away from her mother just a few hours after birth. Cesca had been released from prison 3 months later and her worst fears had been confirmed as she was told that her daughter had been adopted and she wasn't to see her again. She had lived in pain for four whole years but she was presented with a window of hope when she worked out that Zoe was due to start school in the September of 2012. She presumed that her daughter had been adopted by someone in the Rochdale area and with help from a close friend she had discovered which primary school her daughter was set to attend. Although Cesca knew there was no way of getting Zoe back, she stood outside the school most days, in the hope of catching a glimse of the child who she loved so dearly.