You can't be my mum (a Lucy Bronze fanfic) - Book 1

Chapter 29 - sirens

A/N - the amount of support I have received on this book so far is incredible. All your comments and votes just motivate me to write more and more, so thank youu x

⚠️Trigger warning - mentions and descriptions of suicide. Please don't read this if you don't feel comfortable, and remember that if you need to talk, my messages are always open x ⚠️

Lucy Bronze's POV

Sirens.

More specifically, the sirens of an ambulance racing through traffic in an attempt to save someone's life.

I hadn't thought too deeply about the noise, other than whenever I heard it, I silently hoped that the patient inside the ambulance and their family would be okay. Now, I was on the other end of the story, and it was me and my daughter that people were hoping and praying for.

2 hours earlier

"Beth you better be glad you're not in Manchester, otherwise I don't know what the fuck I would have done to you for not telling me this earlier". My aggressive sentence was replied to with silence. Guilty silence from Beth on the other side of the phone, and concerned silence from Keira across the room. 30 minutes had passed since Rosie had left, and I decided to call Beth - desperate to get some answers to the questions whirring around in my brain.

Finally, Beth spoke, "Luce, you have to understand the difficult position Rosie put me in". Anger building up inside of me, I shouted down the phone, "don't you dare try and blame Rosie. You have just told me that my daughter wants to fucking kill herself. And the worst part is, she's not even with me!". When I had spoken, Keira's eyes almost popped out of her head - beginning to fill with worry and anger as she now understand what Beth had known all along. Beth questioned me, "where is she then?". I answered sarcastically, " oh well that's the best bit, she's walking about the streets of fucking Manchester. Alone.". At that last word, I hung up the phone and threw it across the room onto a sofa, "arghhh!". I put my head in my hands and groaned, flinching slightly when I felt Keira's hands on my back - rubbing softly to calm me. Tears brimmed my eyes as Keira put her fingers under my chin and lifted it so mine met hers, "we need to find her as quickly as possible". Nodding my head, we silently walked towards the front door to grab both of our car keys and put our shoes on. Without even speaking, we had mutually decided that taking separate cars would be better - that way we could cover more ground and find Rosie quicker.

Keira's white car left the driveway immediately, while I sat for a bit and pulled out my phone that I had retrieved from the sofa.

Texting the Manchester girls group chat: if anyone has any spare time please can u help me and K look for Rosie. This is URGENT.

Almost instantly, I received a reply from Mary, Alessia and Ella saying that their training session had just finished and they were all available to help. I thanked them before putting on my seatbelt and reversing out the driveway. Trying to block the tears from streaming down my face, I bit my lip. But it was no use. Torrents of salty liquid poured down my face like a waterfall. So many emotions came with them - guilt, confusion, worry, anger at myself for not noticing. How could I miss something as big as this? I had completely failed at being a mum.

After a while of no one finding Rosie, I began to stop and search in the most pointless places : Tesco, Starbucks, the sweet shop she likes. I even went into Pets At Home and looked high and low for her, but she wasn't to be found. The staff in there must have thought I was so weird - walking in there with red and puffy eyes to ask them if they had seen a girl with brown hair.

More people had replied to my message and were now helping out with the search. I was so thankful to have such incredible friends who were willing to give up their time to help me. Even if they didn't know what it was about and why it was so urgent, they were still putting all their effort into finding my daughter.