A Child in the Storm

by Emily Gunnis

Genres: Historical Fiction; Women's Fiction; Historical Mysteries

Synopsis

The gripping and powerful new novel from the global bestselling author is a tense and moving story of cruel separation, betrayal and the triumph of love...

1983. Pregnant teenager Felicity finds support from the caring, courageous protestors at the women's peace camp at Greenham Common. But when she's arrested and thrown into the cells, her worst nightmare comes true: she goes into labour and her baby is swiftly taken away from her.

2024. Locked away for manslaughter, Emma is haunted by the night where her carelessness caused her adopted father to die in a fire. With her adopted mother unable to forgive her, Emma is completely alone in the world - so when her new cell mate Amanda shows her kindness, Emma doesn't think twice about sharing all her secrets... but who can Emma really trust?

Meanwhile, Adele steps into a nightmare when her daughter doesn't make it home from school. When Detective Constable Rachel Rees arrives at the family home and starts to ask questions, she begins to unearth a buried history that spans generations.

Three women; three heart-breaking secrets. As the race to find a missing child pulls on the threads of their lives, will they finally unravel the truth that binds them together?

Your favourite authors are gripped by Emily Gunnis's pulse-pounding novels:

'Compelling, twisty, heart-wrenching... A novel that stays with you. I was gripped' Sophie Kinsella
'Utterly gripping, taut and powerful. An emotionally charged, compulsive, moving novel Adele Parks
'Fast paced, brilliantly plotted and desperately sad at times - all hallmarks of a bestseller' Lesley Pearse
'A truly brilliant and moving read. I loved it' Karen Hamilton
'I really loved it! Tense, emotionally charged' Jenny Ashcroft
'Captivating and suspenseful' Jessica Fellowes

Release date: July 31, 2025

Publisher: Headline

Print pages: 400

Sample

Adele

Monday, 15 July 2024

‘Adele?’

‘Yes?’ said Adele, looking up at her boss, Simon, as he swept past her desk.

‘Have you got a minute?’ he asked, continuing into his office at the small estate agency at the entrance to the picturesque town of Thatcham in Berkshire.

‘Sure,’ Adele lied, jumping to her feet. The phones hadn’t stopped all day, she had three offer letters still to type up, four property details to upload to Rightmove and she was meant to have left ten minutes ago.

She took a breath as her phone burst into life again, ignoring it in favour of Simon, the head of the family-run agency where she worked five days a week from ten until three.

‘Take a seat.’ He smiled warmly and sat down at his desk. Simon was a family man, with two sons he doted on, and a ‘work hard, play hard’ attitude. His wife, Gemma, was also an estate agent and worked in the office part-time, helping out during busier periods. But Gemma’s first priority was home. Simon respected his wife immensely and spoke often about how amazing she was at keeping them all organised. Adele watched with envy the way Simon treated her, offering to help her at home when he could, encouraging the boys to be polite to her when they came in. They were a team and Adele knew Gemma had encouraged Simon to let Adele go part-time when she’d originally made the request the year before.

Adele felt her heart race as Simon pulled his chair up to his desk and immediately started to panic that he was about to let her go – or ask her to increase her hours again. She had worked at Thatcham Estates since Sophia had started primary school six years ago but, by and large, it had not been the experience she had hoped for. She knew a lot of mothers went back to work when their children started school, but it had been almost impossible to manage her ever-increasing workload with Sophia’s occasional sick days, the cancelling of before- and after-school clubs and other mothers letting her down when it was their turn to do play dates. The cost of a nanny would have wiped out her salary entirely and she couldn’t face the thought of a homesick teenage au pair in their house, making a mess and coming and going at all hours, particularly when they were trying to sell.

A lot of the working mums at school had help in the form of grandparents, but sadly that wasn’t an option for her and Sophia. Alex’s parents had been killed in a car accident when he was a teenager and Adele’s father, to whom she was very close, had recently passed away. The only remaining grandparent, therefore, was her mother, who had never been forthcoming with offers of help – or anything else.

It had taken a year to get her boss to agree to let her go part-time to fit around Sophia’s school day. Although she went above and beyond to get her tasks completed, often working late or in the evenings, it was obvious Simon was irritated when she had to miss work if Sophia was ill or had an inset day. Even though she took the missed days as holiday, it was short notice if Sophia was poorly and that ended up causing problems for her colleagues. Gemma’s help in the office was a bonus – she could easily not come in if one of their boys were ill – whereas Adele, as Simon pointed out, was paid to be part of the team and any absences she took had a real impact.

‘I know you’re supposed to leave early tomorrow, but we’ve had a request for a viewing on Greenham Gardens and she’s a cash buyer. Nobody else is available, and it’s a stone’s throw from your house – could you squeeze it in on your way home? We really need to get Greenham sold.’

Adele’s heart plummeted as she forced a smile. The way he phrased his request made her bristle. She wasn’t leaving early, she was leaving at the end of her working day, which was 3 p.m., and she had pressing things to do, but she swallowed her pride and dug deep. She knew there were a hundred mothers looking for part-time roles and she couldn’t really afford to turn down her boss’s requests.

‘Obviously I’d love to help but I need to take the dog to the vet and collect my daughter from school. What time is the viewing?’ she asked.

‘Three,’ he said, in a way that conveyed it was non-negotiable.

Adele’s brain began to race. Sophia was having a hard time with friendships. Ruby, her BFF since primary, had recently started walking home with another girl, leaving Sophia to walk alone. She had sobbed to Adele at bedtime the night before and Adele had promised her she would do her best to finish on time on Tuesday and walk home with her at three thirty, when school finished. She had also cancelled the vet’s appointment twice, for Leia to have her jabs, and without them the kennels wouldn’t take her for their up-coming holiday. Both meant finishing work on time for once.

‘I’m sorry to ask you to take one for the team, Adele. I think your daughter is at the same school as my son, isn’t she? He walks with his friends and he’s fine. I think you mums worry too much. I know Gemma does,’ he said, smiling and then standing as if to signal the conversation was over.

‘No problem,’ Adele said, forcing a smile as she thought of Alex, at work without a single fleeting thought about his home life. No doubt he would have a very similar suggestion to her conundrum. Cancel the vet; let Sophia walk home alone. Anything that required zero effort from him. As long as the client turned up on time she should be able to meet Sophia still. School was only five minutes’ drive from the house-viewing. But she would have to warn Sophia that she might be held up and to start the walk home without her. Then they could race to the vet afterwards. If she made up some bullshit excuse they would hopefully fit them in. It wasn’t ideal. She was letting Sophia down again, and having to deal with another heap of guilt and stress, but what else could she do? Even if Alex was working from home, he would no doubt be on an ‘important’ call, and tell her that Sophia would be fine on her own.

‘Is the key for Greenham Gardens in the key box?’ she asked, standing to leave.

‘Not sure. Check with Issy – she’s across everything,’ he said, implying Adele wasn’t and referring to his favourite staff member, the twenty-something, child-free, single girl of the office, who worked crazy hours, hit all her sales targets, and was able to get pissed with clients every Friday night.

‘Oh, one other thing,’ Simon said, walking over to his printer. ‘We’ve just had a bit of bad news regarding your house sale. I know you were hoping to exchange this week, but the buyer just emailed to say he’s pulling out, due to the issue with the planning.’

Adele felt the blood rush to her face as she stared at Simon in disbelief. ‘But, but . . . they’ve had the survey done and the mortgage offer, they even came to measure up for their sofa last week,’ she said, struggling to keep the tears back. ‘We gave them fifty grand off to exchange by Friday.’

‘I know. They love the house, Adele, but they got a second opinion this week, and they are just too nervous the council will ask them to pull the extension down.’

Adele swallowed her tears; there was no point arguing with Simon about it. ‘OK, I understand. So back to the drawing board?’

‘I think we need to get that planning issue sorted before we go to market again,’ Simon said bluntly, returning to his desk.

‘We’ve got planning,’ Adele said quietly.

‘Well, your neighbour is disputing that the build is not what was agreed. So while that is under investigation, I think we need to hold off going back to market,’ Simon said. ‘Sorry, I know it’s not the news you were hoping for, but I’m sure we’ll get there.’

He handed her a copy of the email and she stared at it wide eyed as panic flooded through her. She knew Simon was irritated with her for wasting his time by breaching the planning permission. He had worked hard on an impressive open house to get their home under offer, and it had worked, but soon after, the neighbour had lodged a complaint with the council about Adele and Alex’s extension. Adele had denied it to her boss, but Alex had indeed told the builder to go slightly wider with the floor, although she had pleaded with him not to. It had taken a year to get planning, and Alex was beyond irritated that what he was allowed to build had shrunk to almost half of the square footage of the original plans. Not one to accept rules and regulations, his solution, as usual, had been to push the boundaries in every way.

‘OK, thank you. Alex and I will have a chat and work out what to do,’ Adele said, knowing that Simon didn’t really care about her house sale or home life any more. He was tired of all the problems and time-wasting her house had caused.

‘I’ll let the buyer know you will meet her at Greenham Gardens at three. Thanks, Adele,’ he said.

Sitting back at her desk, she tried to calm her breathing. Her husband wouldn’t take any responsibility for the sale falling through and would instead spend the evening ranting about how it was Simon’s fault the house hadn’t sold, that her boss had let it drag on, and should have pushed the sale through quicker before the neighbour had a chance to lodge a complaint with the council. Their solicitors would also be to blame; that they hadn’t chased the buyer enough. Or possibly the neighbour for reporting the breach of planning regs. Anyone’s fault but his. She had warned him they would be found out, and they had. Added to which they had forked out nearly five grand in deposits and fees on a two-bedroom flat that they were due to live in until their finances settled down.

Adele sat back down at her desk, a desire to get home to Sophia gnawing at her. She sometimes felt that Sophia was her only real friend in the world. Sophia’s baby and toddler years had been tough and she felt teenage hormones descending already, but right now Sophia was just twelve and couldn’t be lovelier, sticking up for her when Alex was being difficult, helping her around the house, making dinner with her, giving her compliments and much-needed moral support and confidence. Adele sometimes felt guilty that she was in danger of using her daughter to fill the void in her marriage, but Sophia struggled with friendships, just as Adele had done all her life. They just felt at ease with one another and loved hanging out; chatting, cooking, shopping, taking long walks with Leia and binge-watching Netflix. All while Alex worked late or locked himself away in his study and largely ignored them both.

It was a strange feeling, being so close to Sophia, and one Adele had never expected, having always had a very difficult relationship with her own mother. She had actually cried at her twenty-week scan when they had told her it was a girl, thinking that history was bound to repeat itself, and she would feel no love or affection towards her daughter. But as soon as she was born, Sophia had brought the love with her, and Adele had been flooded with relief. She had resolved to have no other children in case she jinxed it.

Adele looked back down at Simon’s email from their buyers declaring that they had ‘regretfully decided to pull out due to the issues with planning’, then dragged herself back to the tasks she needed to get done before going home. In less than half an hour she managed to rattle off three offer letters and upload four new property details to Rightmove, before jumping into her Mini, grabbing dinner ingredients from Tesco on the way home and pulling up outside the house just as Sophia was walking down the road towards her.

‘Hi, sweetheart,’ she said, relieved to see that Alex’s car wasn’t in the driveway. She needed time to compose her thoughts and work out what to say about their house sale falling through. Despite the fact that the problem with planning permission was his fault, she knew in his own way he was trying to help their situation. He had pushed the extension boundaries to make the house more impressive and it had backfired. She also knew he was trying to hide money worries due to a lack of projects at work and a crippling business loan he had been forced to take out for cash flow. They desperately needed to sell the house and she knew that he would completely lose his rag over this news. The fact was, at times, she was scared of him, but she knew so much of his temper was due to losing his parents in such a horrific way at an early age. She had suggested counselling, but he would never agree to it and so she continued trying to be understanding and brushing his behaviour under the carpet.

As the house news began to sink in, she started to consider that it might be better not to say anything to Alex until she’d found a solution to soften the news. Maybe she could get on to the council tomorrow, and see if she could make some headway with their decision, something that would mean their buyer might decide to proceed after all.

‘Hi, Mum, said Sophia, smiling warmly at her mother, despite her weary walk.

‘Hi, honey. How was your day?’ Adele asked, knowing already from Sophia’s demeanour that it hadn’t been good.

‘OK. I’m glad it’s Tuesday tomorrow – no maths. Are you still meeting me from school?’ Sophia asked, her dark hair falling in front of her face as she put her heavy school bag down.

‘I will do my best,’ Adele said, trying to sound cheerful. ‘I may be a little held up.’

Sophia’s blue eyes flashed with alarm, due to her mother having to cancel several of their plans recently. ‘I thought we were going to walk home together with Leia?’

‘I’m sorry, sweetie, work have asked me to do a viewing at three, but I will meet you after that – either on your walk home or here – and we will take Leia for a lovely walk on the common once she’s had her jabs at the vet, I promise,’ said Adele, making a mental note to call the vet first thing. ‘And we can go to Frank’s for an ice cream as a treat.’

Sophia nodded and scrunched her nose, as she did when she was upset.

Adele knew her daughter was struggling to keep it together and that the smallest hiccup could send her over the edge. Sophia was a tough kid who could cope with a lot, as long as plans didn’t change, which was something Adele found herself doing a lot lately. She had spoken tentatively to Alex about finding another job, but he had pushed her to continue, citing that they really needed the money. She longed to take some time out; she felt that she was failing as a mother and an employee. Sophia was lonely at the enormous comprehensive school, which she had just started, because Ruby, her best friend through primary, had essentially dumped her. She needed extra support with maths and English, and she wasn’t eating properly. She needed her mother.

‘How was Ruby today?’ asked Adele, opening the front door.

‘OK. She just kind of ignored me, which is better than her being mean, I guess.’

‘I’m sorry.’

Adele looked at her lovely daughter. Sophia was gentle, honest and thoughtful, nothing like Alex personality-wise, although she looked the spitting image of him. Adele was blonde, blue-eyed and fair-skinned, and although Sophia had Adele’s blue eyes, everything else – her Mediterranean look, with dark hair and skin – she had inherited from Alex. She was tall and willowy, with recently fitted braces, which made her feel self-conscious, but Adele knew that it wouldn’t be long before she grew into herself and emerged from her cocoon as a beautiful, confident young lady.

‘I just miss my best friend. Even though she’s standing right there, it’s like she’s died and a different person has taken her place. She says we’re not into the same things any more. She’s bought a vape, Mum.’ Sophia’s voice wobbled, as Adele opened the front door and their lurcher came bounding down the hallway and launched herself at them.

Adele’s heart ached for her daughter. Her primary school had been a bubble of happiness, kind teachers and an endless supply of friends, play dates and birthday parties. In the short space of a year, she had started in the local comprehensive with fifteen hundred kids, and all her friends had gone from playing at each other’s houses, trampolining, baking, swimming and gymnastics clubs, to hanging out in town, vaping, and chasing boys. Sophia was a July baby, young for her age and had only recently turned twelve. Everyone in Year Seven had suddenly matured in too short a time for her, and Sophia had found herself completely unable to keep up.

Sophia lay down in the hallway and started to giggle, as Leia climbed all over her. Adele felt a surge of love for the stupid, lanky dog, who was Sophia’s constant companion.

‘I’m making spag bol for tea,’ said Adele.

‘Yay! Can I help?’ Sophia said, smiling up at her as Leia continued to eat her own foot.

‘Absolutely. You can chop while I supervise – and sample the wine, of course.’

‘Deal.’ Sophia held out her hand to shake her mother’s.

From the kitchen, Adele heard the phone ring and she scrambled to get past Leia and Sophia, who was unpacking the bolognese ingredients. She knew it was silly, but she couldn’t help hoping it was some good news; that the buyers had changed their minds or that the council had decided to drop the enquiry. The fact that both of those outcomes meant it was more likely they would call on her mobile didn’t cross her frazzled mind, as she ran through the kitchen and lifted the receiver.

‘Hello,’ she said, catching her breath.

Silence. Adele pressed the receiver to her ear. ‘Hello?’ It sounded to her as though the caller was outside: there was road noise, and a police siren in the distance.

‘Adele speaking. Can you hear me?’ she said, before the caller finally hung up.

Adele returned the phone to its cradle. Although she knew it was probably nothing – a call that hadn’t connected, or a wrong number – something in her guts stirred. Her mind darted back to the week before when she had found a small silver hoop earring under Sophia’s bed.

She had known instantly it wasn’t her daughter’s, or hers, and her mind raced as she tried to decipher who it belonged to. Ruby perhaps, or another friend of Sophia’s, or maybe someone who had viewed the house. But Ruby hadn’t been over for weeks and as far as she knew neither had any of Sophia’s other friends. And how would someone viewing the house manage to lose one earring under the bed? It also didn’t look like a teenager’s earring; it had small diamond studs and a Tiffany & Co stamp. It had unsettled her, particularly as it was in her precious daughter’s room, and she had buried it deep in her own sock drawer in an effort to forget.

‘Mum, do I put the garlic and onions in first?’ Sophia said, smiling.

‘Yes,’ Adele said distractedly, staring at the phone.

‘I saw this video on TikTok that showed a girl wearing swimming goggles to cut onions. It stops you crying – I might try it,’ said Sophia cheerfully, dashing out, thudding upstairs to her bedroom, before reappearing wearing her goggles.

Adele dragged her attention from the phone call back to her daughter, as she squeezed the garlic from the press, and watched it sizzle and spit in the pan. Sophia then began to chop an onion on the board. ‘It works!’ she announced.

Adele smiled, as her daughter giggled up at her. She was a sight for sore eyes, and Adele felt her body relax. She was worrying too much about everything as usual.

‘Alexa, play Olivia Rodrigo,’ Sophia said, throwing onion in the pan and dancing round the kitchen in her swimming goggles. Adele joined in, and Leia jumped up at them excitedly. Sophia grabbed Leia’s front paws and the three of them danced in a circle laughing and singing along to ‘get him back!’

For a moment, all was well in their world. It was lovely for Adele to see Sophia smiling after so many tears over Ruby, and the anxious butterflies that had become a permanent fixture in Adele’s tummy lately began to ebb away. She looked around. They had worked so hard to make their new open-plan kitchen beautiful, with months of builders and rubble and plaster dust. She would do anything to stay. Maybe it was fate the buyers had pulled out; maybe things would turn round at Alex’s work and they would be able to afford to keep this house after all.

‘You two look happy,’ Alex called out. ‘I guess you haven’t heard the news then?’ Adele turned to see Alex at the kitchen door scowling at her with his dark eyes. He must have finished work early and the music had drowned out the crackle of his car on the gravel driveway, which usually warned her he was home.

Adele felt her tummy drop. He had heard about the house sale falling through already. There was no way of softening the blow now.

‘Alexa, turn off,’ she said.

‘I’m going upstairs to do my homework,’ Sophia said quietly, walking past her father, goggles in hand.

Adele could smell alcohol on her husband’s breath as he walked over to her and leaned on the kitchen counter. In less than a minute, the atmosphere in the kitchen had gone from light and happy to heavy and unsettling. She focused on finishing off the bolognese, stirring in the bloodied mince and adding the chopped tomatoes and purée.

‘Please tell me you didn’t sign the tenancy agreement for that flat?’ Alex added, looking through the post.

‘I signed a month ago, like you told me to,’ said Adele.

‘Great, that’s five grand down the drain. Presumably you called them to say we don’t want it?’ he snapped.

‘No, not yet. I wanted to talk to you first,’ she said as calmly as she could.

‘What about?’ Alex barked.

‘I don’t know. Maybe you want us to live in the flat and rent this out to save money,’ she said.

Alex frowned at her. ‘Obviously we can’t sell this house if we are renting it. So, what is Simon’s plan then?’

Adele stirred the dinner, trying not to make eye contact. She was tempted to lie to avert an argument, but she knew it would be futile. ‘His advice is for us to get the planning issues resolved before we go back to market.’

‘So he doesn’t have a plan? Great. Did he let the buyers know we are giving them fifty grand off?’

‘Yes, Alex, he did, but they are worried they will have to pull the extension down.’

‘There’s no way it will come to that. How ridiculous,’ he said, pouring himself a beer from the fridge.

‘It’s not actually ridiculous. We’ve breached the planning permission. It would be very expensive to put right, a lot more than fifty grand.’ Adele was careful to use the word ‘we’ and not ‘you’.

‘Well, if you’ve been saying that to Simon, it’s no wonder they’ve pulled out.’

‘Alex, that isn’t fair. I haven’t said anything, but he’s not an idiot,’ Adele sighed.

‘I think the problem is you don’t want to move. You don’t seem to realise how important this is. We can’t make the mortgage payments. We are going to be repossessed if we don’t sell the house now.’ Alex was raising his voice.

‘My salary will cover the mortgage payments for now,’ she reasoned. ‘They can put us on interest-only for six months, which will help. We just need to cut back on everything, and call round all the utilities and they will have to give us some breathing space.’ Adele reached out and put her hand over Alex’s, but he swiftly pulled it away.

‘You live in a fantasy world, you really do. You have no idea the pressure I’m under. A few phone calls isn’t going to magically make all this go away,’ he hissed.

‘Alex, it’s not my fault you hide things from me. How am I supposed to know the pressure you’re under if you don’t tell me?’ Adele tried to keep her voice down for Sophia’s sake.

‘You aren’t interested in anything other than Sophia. You don’t care about me, how worried I am, how bad things are.’

Adele let out another sigh. ‘That’s not true and you know it. I’m doing everything I can.’

‘Are you? Well then, maybe you can prove it by doing your job and getting this fucking house sold,’ he said, stomping off to the study and slamming the door.

Adele poured a large glass of wine to stop her guts churning, and then went upstairs to Sophia, who was sitting at her desk.

‘I’m sorry, sweetie, Dad’s stressed that the house sale fell through today.’

Sophia nodded. ‘Poor Mum,’ she said, looking up from her homework. ‘Dad’s such an asshole sometimes.’

‘He really isn’t good at handling stress, but he is doing his best,’ Adele said, ashamed of herself for making excuses for him. If Sophia’s husband behaved like Alex, she’d be telling her to get out of the marriage.

‘You always make excuses for him, because of what happened to his parents,’ Sophia said.

‘Yes, I know. But he was only a couple of years older than you when they were killed. He lost everything.’

‘But that doesn’t mean he can bully you,’ Sophia said quietly. ‘Wanna watch a movie after dinner?’ she added, searching her mother’s face for a smile.

‘Thanks, sweetheart. What would I do without you?’ Adele said, knowing it irritated Alex how often she fell asleep in Sophia’s room, not wanting him to touch her lately. ‘I think I’m going to have a shower and get into my PJs.’

Adele turned the shower on as the landline trilled into life again. She let it ring and eventually she heard Alex pick up in the kitchen. She tiptoed out onto the landing to listen.

‘How did you get this number?’ he snapped, quietly. ‘I can’t talk now. I’ll call you later.’

She had no idea who was calling the house, but in her heart she felt a line had been crossed. In fact she was glad they couldn’t pull out of the flat rental. It would give her and Sophia an option, an escape, which was something she had been thinking about a lot lately.

As long as she had Sophia she woul. . .