‘We met her, your mother, via the Adoption Society, while she was pregnant with Deirdre. We met her a few times, she wanted that before she’d agree to us. We had long talks with her. She talked about you too, about how much she loved you, wanted the best for you. She said she’d wronged you, but she’d make it up to you. Sadly, well, she, as you know …’

I know.

‘She didn’t want any contact with Deirdre after the adoption. She kept saying she wanted Deirdre to grow up without baggage. And that she wanted her to have a good life. She said that’s what she wanted for both of you.’

‘We kept our word, never told,’ Ann said. ‘And, especially after our lovely girl got sick, we thought we were shielding her from the pain of knowing how her mother had died. Deirdre never knew a thing about that. For all the good it did in the end.’

‘She didn’t know she had a sister either,’ Sean said. ‘We regretted that later. Maybe if she’d known you, she’d have seen a way forward for herself, she might have been able to … I don’t know what would have changed, maybe nothing, but we should have tried. That’s why, when I found out about Jeremy Gill, I thought about contacting you. I’d kept an eye on you over the years, saw that you’d become a solicitor and I knew you had an in with the Film Festival. When I saw that Gill was due back in town, I was sure that it was meant to be, that I was meant to contact you.’

‘I didn’t agree,’ Ann said. ‘We’d made a promise. I didn’t want to break it. And then when he told me you were coming to the house, I thought you knew. But then you didn’t seem to know anything after all. And I wondered if Sean had the right girl, or if he’d made some mistake. You look a little like Deirdre, though not much. But it’s the way you have about you, how you hold yourself. You’re her sister all right. There’s no doubt in my mind.’