‘Maybe.’ He shrugged. ‘Bill always spoke fondly of my mother. Stupidly, I never questioned how he knew her. I guess I just took it at face value that they were friends and she visited the island like others did, but now that I think about it, he was the one who instigated our friendship. I spent a lot of time on the beach as a teenager and he started talking to me on his trips across for supplies. Eventually, he invited me over to the island. We had lots of great times together until Stephen found out what I was up to and hit the roof. He forbade me from seeing Bill but, when I became an adult, I reconnected. Stephen couldn’t control my friendships then.’

‘So, you think there was more to his opposition than the fact that a grown man hanging around a child who wasn’t related to him is pretty suspicious?’ I raised an eyebrow. ‘I can tell you, if a middle-aged man started befriending one of my kids, I’d probably call the cops!’

‘Yeah, but things were different back then, especially in a small town. Everyone else trusted Bill. Dad’s animosity towards him never made sense, but if he knew about the affair, or worse, about the baby …’

I nodded as Dan’s voice drifted off. ‘That would probably do it.’

‘And it would also make perfect sense why he refuses to even entertain the idea of helping with funds for the island. But what I don’t get is, if Stephen knew, why didn’t he say anything? All these years, he’s never once come out and said anything about me possibly not being his son.’

‘Maybe he doesn’t know, maybe you’re right that you’re not close because of your mother’s death and he just felt guilty at you spending time with Bill when he wasn’t making the effort,’ I suggested. ‘Or maybe it’s a pride thing?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Maybe he doesn’t want his friends and employees to know that he couldn’t satisfy his own wife? That she betrayed him.’

Dan snorted. ‘That does sound very Stephen-like—he likes being the big man about town, everyone looking up to him. But I don’t get why Bill didn’t say anything. I guess I understand why he didn’t tell me when I was a kid, but surely when I was an adult … I mean, Mum was long gone, so he didn’t need to worry about her.’

I wished I had the answers Dan clearly wanted, but all either of us had were questions. Without Bill’s side of the story, we couldn’t be certain of any of our theories.

‘If you are Bill’s son, maybe he thought Stephen could offer you more than he could?’ A successful local businessman as opposed to someone who was essentially a squatter.