Page 102 of The Half Sister

‘Dad certainly was, and Mum too, apparently.’

‘How do you mean?’

Lauren drains her glass before answering. ‘It doesn’t matter – that’s a conversation for another time.’

‘Did you talk to Dad about how you felt?’ asks Kate. ‘Did you tell him you wanted to keep it.’

‘I tried, and he tried to listen.’ Lauren laughs scornfully. ‘And for a while, I really thought he was getting it. He was shocked, of course – we all were, but he told me that although it wasn’t what he had wanted or planned for me, once I’d thought about the consequences, he’d support my decision.’

‘So what changed?’ asks Kate.

Lauren shrugs. ‘I honestly don’t know – I’ll never know. But all of a sudden, it went from being what felt like my decision, to me doing what he wanted with no questions asked.’

‘That doesn’t sound like Dad,’ offers Kate gently, noticing the tears that are forming in Lauren’s eyes. ‘He was reasonable, compassionate...’

Lauren snorts derisorily. ‘You and I had very different relationships with him.’

‘But you must know that that was who he truly was,’ says Kate.

‘Maybe the manIsaw was the real him,’ says Lauren bluntly, looking straight at Kate. ‘And the versionyousaw was the fake, because for a good few years after that, I only remember a controlling man who always got his own way.’

Kate can’t believe what she’s hearing; it’s so far removed from the man she knew.

‘He’d stop me from going out,’ Lauren goes on. ‘Dictate who I was allowed to be friends with, forced me to go to sixth form when I really didn’t want to...’

‘But...’ starts Kate, thinking it all sounds like a dad who cared, rather than one who didn’t.

Lauren’s lips thin as she empties the bottle into her glass. ‘He even put me in an institution for two weeks.’

Kate’s addled brain stops dead in its tracks. ‘He didwhat?’

‘Yep, he took it upon himself to admit me to residential care.’

‘What for?’

Lauren shifts in her chair. ‘He thought I had an eating disorder.’

Kate recalls a period when she was fourteen or fifteen and Lauren going away for a while. She thought she’d gone on holiday with friends – in fact, she’s sure that’s what their mother had told her. ‘And did you?’ she asks.

‘I had an unhealthy relationship with food for a bit, but I didn’t need to go into hospital – it could have been dealt with at home.’

Kate is beginning to see a pattern emerging of a scared, confused and unwell young woman, and a father who was doing his best to protect her. Though she can understand how their father’s duty of care could have been portrayed by Lauren as Machiavellian.

‘Did you ever wonder...?’ she starts, knowing she has to tread lightly if she’s to get her point across before Lauren shuts her down, ‘...if Mum might have been the driving force?’

Lauren pulls herself up, Kate notices, and looks at her, suddenly alert.

‘How do you mean?’

‘Well, for as many reasons as you didn’t always get along with Dad, I’ve never felt as close to Mum.’

‘Perhaps it was just naturally geared up that way,’ offers Lauren.

‘Perhaps,’ moots Kate. ‘But I’m wondering if she had more control than we thought – now I know what I know.’

Lauren leans in. ‘Go on,’ she presses.

Kate remembers back to the argument she witnessed when she was younger; the context of which is only becoming clear to her now. ‘We were in the New Forest...’

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