‘I’m sorry, Dad. I’m so sorry how it all turned out. But things will be better now. And I’ll tell you everything,’ said Claire. ‘I’ll explain. I promise.’

‘Christ! What a turn-up,’ said Trace, laughing and grinning for once in her miserable life. She went to Claire and hugged her again. Then she slipped an arm around her dad’s shoulders, another around Claire’s. ‘I’ll stick the kettle on,’ she said. ‘Come on, we’ve a lot to talk about.’ She glanced back at Connor and Suki.

Connor opened his mouth to speak, but to his surprise Suki got in first.

‘It’s such a nice day,’ she said with a smile. ‘You three catch up for a while, OK? We’ll take a walk, give you a little time.’

EPILOGUE

EPILOGUE

The sun beat down as Connor and Suki walked away from the camp and trod the path down past the line of shimmering poplar trees toward the church in the dell, walking between a field that was brown, empty of crops, striped like corduroy from fresh tilling, and another where the corn stubble scratched at their legs as they passed.

When they reached the church, Suki hesitated. ‘This is where it all happened, isn’t it?’ she said, turning anxious eyes to Connor.

‘Yeah. It is.’

Connor pushed open the door. Back at the beginning of the year he’d filled in the grave at the top of the aisle, reburying Blue the dog. He’d even said a quick prayer over the poor little blighter, he didn’t know why; he wasn’t particularly religious. Now, all that showed the grave had ever been touched at all was a split in the stones where he’d struck with the sledgehammer.

He walked in, up the aisle. Slowly, Suki followed, uncertain.

‘This is weird,’ she said, her voice echoing. ‘I was conceived here. By violence.’

Connor looked at her. ‘There’s nothing here now. It’s all gone.’ Finishing the Cleavers and then his mother taking her own life had drawn a line under everything.

‘Yeah.’

Suki gazed nervously around her at the big arch of the roof and the stained-glass windows, feeling she’d come full circle in her life, first finding her mother and now visiting this place where her life had begun. Then she looked at Connor; such a big handsome guy with his pale-brown hair and his light, leonine grey eyes. She couldn’t deny she felt a deep attraction to him, had felt it almost from the moment they met in the solicitor’s office. And that was weird, too, because this was like history repeating itself. This had been Josh and Claire’s special place. And now, here were their children, standing here together.

‘What?’ he asked, watching her.

‘It’s just funny, isn’t it. That we’re here.’

‘Hilarious,’ he said, not understanding.