With Scott gone, Randi went round to the Gatehouse to keep Madison and Holly company. She found her friend in the kitchen making a sandwich while Holly was fast asleep in her bassinette in the lounge.

"Do you want one?" Madison asked, as Randi interrupted the perfectly domestic scene.

"I'm good, thanks." said Randi, please to see Madison wasn't too affected by Scott's absence. "Are you looking forward to tonight?"

Amanda and Jake were coming by later to take Madison and Holly to Kendall's 'Day of the Dead' party. They all thought it would do her good to spend more time in the company of other parents and children.

"I guess." said Madison with a sigh. But it didn't look like she meant it.

"Are you bringing a picture?" Randi asked, following Madison back into the lounge.

Kendall had asked guests to bring a photograph of people that they wanted remembered. Madison pointed to the coffee table. There was a framed photograph of Sarah, her first baby that had died prematurely just over a year ago. Randi gave her friend a sad smile but that faltered when she saw underneath was another photo frame holding a picture of Holly.

"But you don't need this one." said Randi, standing it up on the table beside her.

"Yes I do!" said Madison snatching the picture back. She looked lovingly down at the photograph. "I want to remember both of my dead babies." she cooed.

Randi's eyes flickered from Madison to Holly asleep in her crib…and she was asleep, she could see her chest rise and fall with her breathing.

"Holly isn't dead." she said, suddenly nervous about this new development.

Madison gave Randi a pained look.

"It's alright, I know you know." she whispered. She leaned forward conspiratorially. "I know she died. I know that is why Scott is cheating… it because he blames me for her death. He's with Marissa right now… He's going to leave me! I'm pretending she's alive so he stays but I know she died in the hospital. I know she died just like Sarah."

Randi leaned away from her friend. Was this kind of delusion a new aspect of her post-natal depression? Randi had no idea.

"Madison… Have you told you counsellor about this?"

"Counsellor?" said Madison confused for a moment. "Oh yes my counsellor. I have an appointment today."

"You do?"

"Yeah."

"I think you should tell them about this if you haven't already."

"But then Scott will know I'm pretending." said Madison.

"Whatever you tell your counsellor will be confidential I'm sure.

"And you won't tell him that I know will you?" Madison asked. "He can't suspect a thing. It won't work otherwise."

"I won't tell anyone if you don't want me too." said Randi reassuringly, although she knew that first chance she got she would be doing just that. This wasn't just depression, this was crazy talk.

Madison got on with eating her sandwich, while Randi's mind was going over this alarming new development.

"Do you want me to drive you to your appointment?" Randi asked.

Madison laughed it off,

"I can take a cab! I'm fine."

"Well do want me to watch the baby?" suggested Randi, in her present mind set Madison probably wasn't thinking much about the baby at all.

Madison blinked and looked at the bassinette.

"Sure, you watch the baby." she smiled sadly at Holly fast asleep. "My poor dead baby."

…

When Madison left in the cab, Randi pulled her cell from her pocket and rang Frankie.

"I'm worried about Madison." she said hurriedly.

"What do mean?" asked Frankie.

"She thinks her baby is dead."

"What?"

"She told me her baby was dead and she only pretending Holly was alive for Scott's sake."

"She said that?"

"And she meant it."

"Is she still there?" Frankie asked.

"She went to her counselling session. Which I guess is a good thing. I had no idea post-natal depression could get this bad."

"This isn't post-natal depression. It sounds like post-natal psychosis. It's a lot rarer, only around one in a thousand women suffer with it, and it's a lot more serious. She'll need to be hospitalised. I need to ring her counselling office and alert them."

"Of course." said Randi. She hung up the phone and sat back down on the couch in shock, how had Madison hidden being so ill for so long.

…

Frankie called back ten minutes later.

"Hi Randi, are you sure Madison said she was going to a counselling session?"

"Yeah, I watched her get in the cab. Why?"

"Because her assigned counsellor hasn't seen her… at all! I've rang every other counselling service in town and no one has been treating her."

"Then where is she?" Randi asked confused.

"I don't know? Have you got Scott's contact details? We need to call him."

"Sure, he left a load of info by the phone, I'll get it."

Scott had shown her where he was leaving the numbers for his trip, on the table beside the phone. Only when she got there they were gone. Randi looked in the drawer; on the floor beside the table; on the coffee table in the lounge; on the side in the kitchen...

"…Well?" asked Frankie still waiting on the other end of the phone.

"It's not here." said Randi, heading upstairs now to see if Madison had moved then to by the phone in her bedroom, but the papers weren't anywhere obvious.

"I could ring his cell." she suggested, "I think he'll still be on the plane at the moment but I could leave a message. And I'll keep looking for the other papers."

"You do that." said Frankie. "I'll make a few more calls this end."

"Okay." said Randi, terribly worried now.

She scrolled down her phone for Scott's number and waited to be connected. Suddenly a ring tone sounded out from under the bed making her jump. Randi knelt down, following the sound and pulled out a shoe box. Inside the box she found Scott's cell phone. There was also a stash of papers covered in scrawls of Madison's handwriting, maps of New York and other buildings and most worryingly of all, a collection of syringes.

What the hell was going on?

…