Anna avoided Tom for the rest of the day. As much as she liked Tom, she didn't want him to find out the secrets she held.

She was sat at home marking a few books when the doorbell rang.

She opened the door to see Tom, as she'd pretty much expected.

'Can I come in?' he asked gently.

She sighed and stepped aside, allowing him access to the house.

She followed him into the living room and he sat next to her looking at her in concern.

'What was all that about earlier? And don't saying 'nothing' because it was not nothing.'

'It doesn't matter, it's my problem and I'm dealing with it.'

'Yeah, it looked like you were dealing with it.'

'Look - you don't know anything about it so let's just forget it. Forget you ever saw me like that.'

'But I did see it - the message. You could go to the police with that.'

'I don't want to go to the police. The last time I went to the police, it didn't go so well.'

She inwardly cursed herself for letting it slip. Now he would want to know more and since she had already started telling him, he wouldn't let go until he knew.

'Anna, sweetheart,' he said carefully, very aware of what a delicate situation this seemed to be for her, ' How long have you been recieving these messages?'

'Um, every few days in the last month - since I started working here.'

'Why are you being sent them? The message said something about telling someone a secret, what are you so afraid to let people know?'

'It's not that I'm afraid for people to know, in a way I want people to know. But if I tell it, one person in particular - the person that matters most in all this - might end up hating me.'

'No one could hate you, whatever it is can't be that bad.'

'Oh but it is.'

'What's so bad? What is it? And who are the letters from?'

'If I tell you, you can't tell anyone.' she said seriously.

'If you're in trouble - ' he began, only to be cut off.

'Tom! I need to know I can trust you with this.'

He looked at her quite in alarm over her distress and nodded wordlessly.

'OK, the letters are from... from the man who raped me just over 16 years ago.'

'Oh my God, I'm so sorry,' he said as she began sobbing quietly. He reached out and cautiously took hold of her hand in support.

After a pause during in which he had no idea what to say, he finally decided to speak up.

'But shouldn't the guy be in prison if he did that? And you must have only been a kid if it was that long ago.'

'I was 14 years old,' she said in a shaky voice, causing him to grip her hand tighter, ' It was evening. My mother sent me out to the shop to fetch her something - it was dark and I was just walking down the street when he pulled me and the alley behind the shop and did it to me. I went to the police but the case wasn't strong enough to get him sent to prison - apparantly there wasn't enough evidence.'

'That's awful, surely there were signs?'

'I had a few bruises but there wasn't anything solid to suggest I hadn't consented so he got off. We moved to London after that - me, my parents, Roger and Amy.'

'Amy?' Tom asked raising an eyebrow.

'Roger's wife - well she was his wife. She died a few years ago. Roger is ten years older than I am, so he was 24. He and Amy didn't have to relocate with us, but Roger thought he'd have better career opportunities in London. Then he moved back because Brett got sick of private school and wanted to do his A-levels at a normal school. I suggested Waterloo Road, since the years I spent there - though cut short - were perfectly satisfactory.'

'But I don't understand what the letters were about.' he said, pulling a piece of paper out of his pocket.

It was the message he had pulled out of Anna's bin earlier that day and have saved to confront her with.

He looked down at it and read an extract out loud.

'It's time the boy learned the truth... You can't run from the truth forever... he deserves to know. There's also two dates - look. What does all this mean?'

She looked down at the paper.

'The first date is the date that it happened, and the second is...' she trailed off bracing herself for what she was about to tell him.

'Is what?' he asked, really wanting to fill in the blanks.

In the pause, the house phone rang.

RING RING RING RING RING RING

'Excuse me,' she said to Tom before snatching up the reciever of the phone.

'Hello, Anna Aspinall speaking.' she said.

'Miss Aspinall? It's Chlo,' came the voice on the other end of the phone.

'Chlo, Hi. And you know you can just call me Anna when we're not at school. What can I do for you?'

'There's been an accident.'

'What? What is it?'

'Brett and Mika were on Brett's dad's motorbike, and a car crashed into them and the ambulance came and they've just been taken to the hospital and Brett's dad said he and Brett's step-mum were too busy to go to the hospital but I thought he should have someone there for him and I thought you would want to know.' she said in rather a rush.

'Well how do you know about it? Where were you?'

'With Janeece and Maxine. We were walking down the road when they pulled up on the bike and stopped for a quick chat. Then they drove off, got only part way down the road before they were knocked down.'

'So where are you now, are you alright?'

'I'm at the hospital.'

Tom was watching her anxiously as she knew it was Chlo on the phone and the conversation didn't sound too good.

Anna bit her lip, 'I'll be there soon.'

'So is Tom there with you? Because he wasn't answering the house phone and he's turned his mobile off.'

'Yes, he's here and we'll both be there right away.'

She clicked the phone off and gathered up her coat from where she had thrown it on her way.

'What's going on?' asked Tom in concern.

'We're going to the hospital. Brett and Mika have had an accident.'

'What? Is it serious? Are they alright?'

'Well I don't know. Let's get there and find out shall we?'

They drove to the hospital in silence, both of them very worried. Tom had forgotten all about his eagerness to uncover Anna's mysterious past and Anna had forgotten about it too.

When they arrived at the hospital, they approched Chlo in even greater worry.

'Where are they?' asked Tom.

'Can we see them?' asked Anna.

'Mika's having stitches done on her leg and just getting patched up. She's in cubicle 3.'

'What about Brett?' asked Anna as Tom ran off to see Mika.

Chlo looked reluctant to answer, 'It seems he got the brunt of the injuries since he was sat at the front.'

'Well how bad is it?' she asked in fear of the answer.

'He's unconsious and I don't know much more. They wouldn't tell me with me not being family.'

'Where is he? Can I see him?'

'I'm not too sure where he is exactly, you'd have to ask at the desk.'

'Thanks Chlo, why don't you go see your sister?'

Chlo did just that, and Anna inquired at the desk for the whereabouts of Brett.

Anna found out where he was and was stood outside the cubicle about to go in when Tom appeared at her side.

'Tom, how's Mika?'

'She's fine, few cuts and bruises but otherwise fine. Why have you ended up here? What about Roger and Celia?'

'Celia doesn't give a damn and Roger isn't too bothered either. Plus I love him, it's my duty to look after him. He's not just my nephew.' she said emotionally before she slipped behind the blue curtain of the cubicle and hurried to Brett's side.

Tom followed her and stood in the corner behind her, though she was unaware of his presence.

In her mind, it was just she and Brett.

He was deathly pale except from the few purple bruises on his face. He looked in a bad way but at least the gentle rise and fall of his chest was steady. She took hold of his limp hand and held it tightly, it was tearing her apart to see him like this.

She pressed her lips to the back of his hand very tenderly.

There was a cough from beside her.

She turned her head to see a nurse stood there.

'Is he.. is he going to be alright?' Anna asked the nurse worridley.

'He's bruised a rib and will have some concussion when he comes round but he should be fine.'

'How long will he be unconsious?'

'We're not too sure but cases like these are usually no longer than a few hours. He'll be kept in over night for observation, which is just routine.'

'OK thanks.'

The nurse looked from Anna to Tom.

'Only family should be in here. Are you his parents?'

Tom answered promptly, 'No, I'm Anna's partner.'

The nurse turned her attention to Anna.

'So you're family? Because if not, then you shouldn't be in here.'

Anna answered without thinking about what she was saying.

It just came out naturally.

'Yes, I'm his mother.'

The nurse nodded, 'Well you're welcome to stay as long as you want, someone will be along in a while to check up on your son.' she said and then left.

Anna turned her attention back to Brett and brushed some of his hair out of his face.

Tom observed her as she leant over Brett, carefully toying with his dark locks of hair.

Why that hell had she said that to the nurse?

He stepped forward at the other side of Brett's bed so that he was facing her.

'Anna?' he asked lightly.

She looked up at hearing his voice and saw him standing with his arms folded across his chest, watching her with a look of utter confusion on his face.

'Yes?' she asked.

'Why did you tell that nurse that you're Brett's mum?'

'What?' she asked, realising the mistake she had made, with dismay.

'The nurse asked if we were Brett's family. I said no, and she asked you if you were a relation. You told her that you were his mother. Why the hell did you do that?' he questioned.

'Because it's true, Tom,' she said gazing at him sadly, 'He's my son.'