“Do you need some help? I can give you a sleeping pill.”

Alice thought about how easily she’d fallen asleep with Harry and Brutus pressing comfortingly against her. “I’ll borrow Monty for company.”

In the end, she’d tossed and turned, listening to a large chunk of an audio book, but never able to fully silence the question loop. Who were her parents? Why had Karen and Peter never told her she was adopted? Was she adopted? Who the hell was she?

By 6:00 a.m., she’d given up on sleep. She got up to the sweet caroling call of the magpies, borrowed Libby’s running gear and went for a jog. Not a natural athlete, she welcomed the assault on her body as she struggled to get breath into her lungs and oxygen into her cells, leaving her mind blessedly quiet. Alice wanted to keep running and never stop.

When she returned to Burrunan, the household was stirring. Her nieces, who’d been asleep when she’d arrived the night before, threw themselves at her in the way only children can, their joy innocent and unfettered. They begged her to make pancakes. She rolled around on the floor with them first, letting them sit on her, and then she made them breakfast, thankful for their distracting chatter. It kept the worry at bay that today’s explanation from her parents might be worse than yesterday’s shocking news.

As Libby slung her work satchel on her shoulder and walked to the door, she announced, “Dan’s here.”

Alice’s pancake caught in the back of her throat. “What?”

“‘Dan the man’ is walking down the side of the house. He’ll be here in three, two, one. Morning, Dan. Hello, goodbye. I’m late for clinic.”

“Oh, ah, hi, bye, Libby.” After Libby rushed past him, Dan stepped inside holding a cardboard coffee tray full of drinks.

Alice blinked. “You brought me coffee?”

“Skinny latte extra hot, right?”

Dan knew her coffee order? “Thank you. Um, shouldn’t you be at school?”

“I had to see you first.” Dan wrapped his arms around her, hugging her so tight it was hard to breathe. “You know how to worry a bloke, Twin Two.”

Alice flinched and immediately felt bad. It wasn’t Dan’s fault his nickname for her no longer fitted. “Sorry.”