Page 71 of The Temp

‘We started arguing a lot more,’ Mum continues, ignoring me. ‘Eventually, I persuaded him to get in contact with the family, said I’d kill myself if he refused. I watched him pick up the phone, dial the number and speak to someone. I could tell something was wrong by the tone of his voice. When he put the phone down, he turned to me and said the young couple had moved and that their adopted baby had…’ Mum chokes on her words, rubs her arm. God, no, please don’t let her have a stroke. ‘They said it was a cot death,’ she gulps. Pins pierce my stomach repeatedly. Dad didn’t make that call, did he – he fobbed Mum off to shut her up. I bet he had his finger pressed on the plunger during the entire fake conversation. ‘I’m so sorry, girls.’

Bitter saliva fills my mouth. I swallow it down and look at Daisy, who is twisting the crucifix around in her fingers, features set in confusion. ‘You thought I was dead?’

Mum nods, squeezing the damp tissue in her hand. ‘I believed him – why would he lie to me? But none of it was true, was it? He just made it all up. Dumped you outside a hospital, came home, had his tea, laughed his head off watching an episode of Morecambe and Wise and went to bed. The evil bastard. Divorcing him,’ Mum says to me and Zelda, voice breaking, ‘was the best thing I ever did.’

Zelda sighs, throws me a fleeting glance. ‘To be fair, Mum, you did cheat on him and have another man’s child.’ Mum turns away sharply, as if she’s been slapped. ‘Is that when you disappeared for almost a year,’ Zelda continues. ‘When you went to look after Grandpa?’ My heart crushes. Of course it was. Why didn’t I make that connection? I bet Grandpa wasn’t even ill.

Mum nods. ‘I stayed with him a couple of nights, then moved into a B&B until I had the baby. Meanwhile, Stanley was going to put the house on the market, sell up and join me with you girls once I’d given birth. Barry could never know. We’d start afresh in the Isle of Man, where no one knew us. Those were Stanley’s terms.’

‘Wow, Nan,’ Georgia gasps.

‘The cross.’ Mum sniffs. ‘They let you keep it.’

‘It was in the biscuit tin I found.’ Daisy’s voice is barely audible. Mum dips her head, shoulders shaking.

‘Oh, Nan,’ Georgia rushes over to her, and I watch as my mother weeps in my daughter’s arms. I feel numb. I can’t believe I’ve got a half-sister I knew nothing about. A sibling who’s been sharing my home for weeks. A mother who’s been harbouring a secret for almost a lifetime. But most of all, I’m sickened that the man I’d looked up to is nothing but a selfish, ruthless, monster.

‘Mum, why didn’t you tell us?’ I ask again.

‘Oh, love,’ she sobs. I couldn’t.’

‘Well, this is all very endearing,’ Zelda sniffs. I know that look. I know she’s feigning indifference, ‘But you could be anyone. Mum’s daughter is dead. A cot death. Our father isn’t a liar. He placed Mum’s baby with a loving, childless couple who were desperate – made their dream come true.’

Tina sighs loudly. ‘I suppose you’ll want to see some proof.’ Tina’s hand disappears into the manila envelope that she’s been guarding close to her chest since she got here. ‘Here,’ she says, and as she hands me several A4 sheets, I catch Daisy shaking her head at Tina nervously, eyes flared, frightened. My heartbeat belts. What is she hiding now? What is it she doesn’t want me to see?

Chapter 64

I thumb through the pages eagerly, blocking out the babble of voices. A copy of the newspaper cuttings – Baby found on Trinity Hospital stairs. A photo of baby Daisy, wearing a gold crucifix around her little body with a glimmering ruby in the middle. Oh, and now the prize – Ancestry Report for Daisy Murphy. I scan it hungrily:

Sort by Relationships

Match categories:

Parent/Child – Barry Gray.

And then, highlighted in yellow, there it is. The proof we all need. Jesus wept.

Georgia Harris – Possible relationship: First cousin once removed – Half uncle, aunt – Half nephew, NIECE! Oh, Liam, what’ve you done? You said it was only going to be a paternity test, you little shit. My pulse slams against the wall of my chest.

‘Bella, Bella, did you hear me?’ Tina’s voice becomes audible again, ‘Let Zelda see the documents, please.’

‘What? I utter, hair in my hot face. I feel as if I’m floating. I can’t show this to Zelda, she’ll blurt it all out, everyone will question me. Georgia will want to know how her details ended up on a DNA database without her permission, and, more importantly, who put them there. But before I can say anything else, Tina snatches the papers from my limp grasp.

‘No,’ Daisy barks, hand out, and Tina recoils.

‘But don’t you want them to…’

Daisy gives Tina a look, eyes hardening, and all I can do is sit there, panting, wishing I could dissolve into the fibres of the sofa. ‘That report contains confidential information,’ Daisy says through gritted teeth, then looks at me, face softening. She knows about Liam and the paternity test. Of course she does, she must’ve emailed him thinking it was Georgia, and he told her everything, including where to find us. And now, Daisy is trying to protect me. I want to hug her. ‘Look, Tina, you shouldn’t have even shown it to Bella, not without my consent.’

‘Yes, of course.’ Tina gives me a fleeting, nervous look. ‘You’re right. I’m sorry. I didn’t think.’

‘Typical,’ Zelda groans, impatiently. ‘Bella, did you see anything, anything at all that confirms Daisy’s related to us?’

‘I um…’ Swallowing, I glance at Daisy. ‘I didn’t get a chance to read it all properly before…’

‘Bella?’ Mum says crisply, clearly sensing my tension. She’s no fool. ‘If there’s anything you think you should share, please do. This is important.’

‘Yeah, Mum, come on,’ Georgia agrees.

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