AVAILABLE SEPTEMBER 2026
It was late on Boxing Day night when I heard a strange noise outside my house. I was in bed and got up and looked out of the window but I couldn’t see anyone. Then I heard the noise again. With my heart racing I went downstairs where I gingerly opened the front door to find a teenager huddled on my doorstep.
‘I’m Lily,’ she said, her teeth chattering from the cold. ‘I stayed here ten years ago for two weeks.’
I stared at her in utter disbelief.
‘You’d better come in,’ I said.
And so began Lily’s story which is far from easy to tell. I slowly learnt that she had fallen through the net of social care and ended up on the street and then on my doorstep. But what was I to do with her? I hadn’t a clue. I muddled along as best I could until one day Lily tells me a heartbreaking secret and I knew I had to act.
