The Bitterest Pill
Nobody knows why sixteen-year-old Paul Chapman, an apparently loving son and a model pupil, has gone off the rails. His mother knows he's not sleeping at home, his teacher has found him drunk and dishevelled. The change in his character has been as sudden as it has been dramatic. Not the best preparation for the exams that could take him on to a glittering university career.
But then they don't know that Paul has stumbled across his own adoption order. Suddenly, for Paul, nothing's quite as it had always seemed, leaving him tormented by a discovery that not only calls into question the motives of his parents, but even casts doubt on his own identity.His torment soon becomes complete. On a wild, wet night, drinking heavily, he steals a car on a local housing estate and knocks a woman over. At face value, it seems a relatively routine case for the police officers sent to investigate. The woman dies without regaining consciousness.
But soon the incident begins to have implications for more than just Paul, affecting, among others, his adopted ˜mother', for so long dominated by a violent, angry husband. She must face up to the prospect of losing her ˜son' as well as facing her own, almost overwhelming feelings of guilt. Will she fight for him or cave in as she has in the past?
The case resonates also with police officer Nathan Trimmer, who struggles to prevent his judgement from being clouded by the vulnerable teenager that he has taken into custody.But for local newspaper reporter Jackie Challis, the incident is a golden opportunity. Constantly in search of the one big story that might earn her a job on a national newspaper, she'll stop at nothing to get the inside track on the relationships involved and sell the story to a tabloid news editor. For her, it's a chance too good to miss.
All is resolved when the parties come face to face at the graveside in the aftermath of the victim's funeral. But what will be the outcome?
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