Tom's P.O.V
It's almost 12 pm and I haven't eaten since breakfast, I can't eat, I feel numb all over but I pull over to a petrol station to full up the car and munch through a double decker,I'm halfway through before I remember they were Grace's favourites, it's hard not to see her, everywhere I go,she's only been gone a couple of hours but it feels like years.
Signs begin to signal I'm drawing closer to our childhood home, in a small village called Stamfordham,the house is surrounded by rolling hills and endless fields where we used to walk the dog. The car crunches over the gravel as I roll towards the front door, I rattle around for the keys in the hanging basket, I search amongst the soil until I feel the refreshingly cool metal of the key amongst the humid night, I slot the keys to the door, I don't even bother to take my shoes off, I just storm up stairs , déjà vu reminds me of being sent to me room as a kid. I hear the gentle plod of the family Labrador Rosie,slow in her old age, I remember Grace and I begging for a dog for months and months until finally on Christmas Day, a black Labrador puppy was sprawled across our parents bed,we were so excited, especially Grace,she was still so young that she could barely lift the puppy.
Amidst the dark I locate the filing cabinet, I sit beside it and begin to rummage amongst the files, Rosie lies beside me,happy for the company, I scratch her black head, littered with silver hairs as I flip through the assortment of files until I finally find my birth certificate and there it is in black and white, my mum, or rather a woman's name, amongst my section of papers there are vast amounts of letters all sealed from my mother. I sit for hours on end reading these letters, I find out all about my mother ,it's strange, I thought I'd feel something,I thought I might love her,but I feel nothing, I'm just looking at letters that mean little to nothing to me. The last letter in the stack is a strange one it is almost twelve years after I was born,but it does not talk about me,it is a proposition to my parents.
Dear Mr and Mrs Kent,
It's probably a shock to hear from me again after all these years,I hope you both are well in addition to Tom. I'm sorry for the lack of contact but life is unbearably difficult so much so I don't want to burden you with my troubles. I don't know how to put this but I have a huge favour to ask of you both, I'm eternally grateful of you caring for Tom,for giving him a childhood I never could,I am writing to ask if you could do the same for my second child. I am five months pregnant, and back together with Tom's father, my childhood sweetheart and husband, we cannot afford to raise a child the way our son has been raised, because if our poor lifestyle. It's almost impossible to write a letter like this, in short, I'd like to ask if you would take on my second child, legally as yours. I'm at the same address, and I do understand that this is a huge favour to ask and I do understand if you say no.
Yours
She simply signed it in an unintelligible signature, attached to the letter was a ultrasound picture, a baby that looked a little too small for five months,but looked like a little a girl, little Grace.