‘You go ahead. I’ll be there in a minute. Thank you so much for the gift,’ I said to Dan as Payton skipped the few metres to the cafe.

‘You’re welcome. Hopefully your possum friend won’t try to get back into the roof now.’

‘I think it’s working. I haven’t heard a noise since you hung it up.’

Silence reigned a few minutes as we smiled awkwardly at each other.

‘How are you feeling about … you know? Have you made any decision about if you want to try and find out the truth?’

He let out a heavy breath. ‘Funny you ask,’ he said, then glanced around before lowering his voice. ‘I confronted Stephen about it this morning. I didn’t know I was going to until I did, but I told him again why I thought opening the island to the public was a good move for the town and would only draw more tourists to the area, not take away from the Factory, and asked again if he’d consider helping with funding.’

‘I’m guessing his answer was no.’

‘Yep. He flat out refused to even consider it, so I outright asked him if the reason he was so opposed was because Mum had an affair with Bill. If I was the result of that affair.’

He paused and I realised I’d been holding my breath. ‘And?’

‘And he flew into a rage. Said he’d always known he wasn’t my father but that he never told Mum he knew because he wasn’t going to let Bill win; he didn’t plan on letting her go and leaving him with two little kids to look after. However, he said he couldn’t be sure Bill was my father either, because my mother was a floozy, who as far as he knew would drop her pants for anyone when he wasn’t around to keep her under control.’

‘Wow.’ I rested my hand on his arm in a show of comfort; I didn’t believe anything of the sort about Dan’s mum, but the fact his supposed father could say those things clearly hurt him. So much for Stephen Emerson being the good guy around town.

‘What happened next?’ The footpath was not the place for such a big conversation, and I didn’t really have the time, but as I was the only other person besides Stephen and Dan that knew what was going on, I felt compelled to be there for him.

‘We had words. Turns out you were right, Stephen doesn’t want anyone to know the truth—nothing about doing what was right for me, all about saving face for him. He doesn’t want to look like a laughing-stock for raising another man’s child.’

‘Plenty would think taking on a child that isn’t biologically your own is a noble thing to do,’ I said.