Permissions on files links not working

First post " new to cPanel. I have a Wordpress site hosted by GoDaddy Linux. Within that I have a parent directory with 2 sub directories (a and b). The folders contain information that is private to the current logged in user. The security settings at the parent folder are 700 (Owner only) I have a PHP script that reads files in subdirectory "a" and shows certain href links to folder "b". The PHP script can read the files in subdirectory "a" but when a link is clicked it gives a "no page found" error. It works if I set parent folder permissions to 777 (open to the world). However I don"t want these private files visible to anyone else but the current user and not available via a direct URL. Is there any way to have an href link to a file that has permissions set to current owner only?