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Contents

Cover

Title Page

Chapter One: The Child from Hell

Chapter Two: Awaiting Aimee

Chapter Three: A Challenge

Chapter Four: ‘I Want Biscuits’

Chapter Five: Severe Neglect

Chapter Six: ‘I’ll Tell Me Mum!’

Chapter Seven: Should Have Done More

Chapter Eight: Meeting Susan

Chapter Nine: ‘He’s Horrible’

Chapter Ten: Poor Role Models

Chapter Eleven: The Phone Call

Chapter Twelve: Craig

Chapter Thirteen: More Trouble

Chapter Fourteen: Keep Asking

Chapter Fifteen: Quiet and Withdrawn

Chapter Sixteen: Serious Allegation

Chapter Seventeen: Problem Family

Chapter Eighteen: Flashback

Chapter Nineteen: Hatchet

Chapter Twenty: ‘Father Christmas Didn’t Come to My House’

Chapter Twenty-One: Going for Gold

Chapter Twenty-Two: Perfect Christmas

Chapter Twenty-Three: A New Year

Chapter Twenty-Four: Jason

Chapter Twenty-Five: A Winner Now

Chapter Twenty-Six: Progress

Chapter Twenty-Seven: A Chance Meeting

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Peter Rabbit

Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Visit

Chapter Thirty: An Incredible Family

Epilogue

Acknowledgements

Also by Cathy Glass

Cathy Glass

Copyright

About the Publisher

Chapter One

The Child from Hell

Aimee is aggressive. She kicks, bites, screams in her mother’s face, and pulls out her mother’s hair. Her mother states she is afraid of Aimee and has to lock herself in the bathroom or run to neighbours for protection when Aimee attacks her. Her mother states that Aimee killed the kittens their cat had by strangling them.

‘What!’ I gasped, glancing up from reading the referral.

Jill nodded sombrely. ‘Read on. It doesn’t get any better. ’ Jill was my support social worker (also known as a link worker) from Homefinders, the agency I fostered for. We were in my sitting room and Jill was watching me carefully as I read the details of the eight-year-old girl the social services were bringing into care and looking for a foster home for.

I continued to read:

Aimee’s parents live apart and Aimee lives mainly with her mother. The flat is always dirty and freezing cold, and there is never any food in the cupboards.

Aimee and her mother sleep on a stained mattress on the floor in the living room, as the one bedroom is too damp to use. Aimee is often unkempt, grubby, and has head lice. She refuses to go to school. Her mother is unable to cope with Aimee and often leaves her with other adults, many of them men and registered drug users. Susan (Aimee’s mother) is unable to set boundaries or routines for Aimee and states that Aimee becomes violent if she is not allowed to do what she wants. A family support worker was put in to try and help, but Susan was unable to stand up to her daughter. Aimee’s mother and father have been intravenous drug users. It is likely they still use. Both parents have served prison sentences for drug dealing.

I turned the page and under the heading ‘Family members and other related persons’ I read that Aimee had five older half-brothers and -sisters, all of whom had different fathers and all of whom had been taken into care as young children. The eldest of the siblings was now twenty-seven and the family had been known to the social services since he was born – twenty-seven years ago!