Page 83 of The Version You Hide

“Wow.” I raise my eyebrows in surprise then my eyes find hers. “Well, if she’s anything like you I’m sure I’m going to like her.”

She laughs. “We’re polar opposites, but I think you’ll still get on like a house on fire.”

The idea of meeting another long-lost family member sends a wave of nausea through me. It’s been difficult enough to learn that I’m someone’s granddaughter, let alone somebody’s great niece. I’m suddenly overwhelmed. I think I’ve taken in enough information for one day.

“I should probably get going.” The chair legs screech across the wooden floor as I stand.

“There is something else,” Grace says, once again reaching into the large envelope and turning over another folded note in her hands. “She wrote a letter for you too.”

“No,” I say, furiously shaking my head. “I don’t want that.”

I can’t think of anything that my mother could have written in that letter that could possibly undo all the hurt of the last twenty years. I’m positive that reading it will only be my undoing.

She holds it out to me. “Please take it. I think you need to read it.”

“Did you read it?” I ask her.

She nods. “I did. And you should too. In a way, it has given me so many answers. It’s given me a sense of closure. I hope it might do the same for you.”

Hesitantly, I reach for the letter, another A4 sheet folded in two. I fold the paper over again, hastily tucking it into the front pocket of my skirt. “I’ll think about it.”

I’m almost at the front door of the studio when I hear Grace’s trembling voice behind me. “Mackenzie?”

I turn, looking back at the woman that I can now call my grandmother. “Yes.”

“Don’t be a stranger, okay?”

My forehead crumples as I nod, before pushing the door open and stepping out onto the street. I head to Dylan’s car, hyperaware of the note in my pocket, wondering how something almost weightless can feel as heavy as lead.

I know that when I get back to the tavern, Dylan will have questions and I already know that I won’t be in the right head space to answer them.

I feel as though I’m living in a world of uncertainty right now, but there is one thing I am sure of.

I do want to get to know Grace. This woman may have barged into my life with life-changing consequences, but I know in my heart that she is a good person. One that, like me, knows what it’s like to suffer an unbearable loss.

And maybe she needs me just as much as I need her.

Chapter 26

DYLAN

“How were things on the boat this morning?" I ask Jade as I slide her a glass of Coke across the bar.

“Great,” she replies with a sassy grin. “You weren’t missed at all.”

“Haha,” I say with dead eyes. “You’re hilarious.”

“You better have a good excuse for calling in sick.” She quirks one eyebrow as she twirls her straw around inside her glass. “You missed out on seeing the biggest octopus I’ve ever seen in my life. Not to mention the massive grey nurse feeding frenzy.”

“You’re kidding.” I groan. “I missed out on feeding time?”

“Yep,” she says with a smug smile on her face.

“Shit. I picked the worst day to call in sick then.”

“Speaking of,” she says, eyeing me from head to toe and back again. “You don’t actually seem all that sick.”

“You caught that, huh?” My mind drifts back to this morning. Mackenzie curled up on my couch, Chance tucked into her side. “I had something important to take care of this morning.”

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