How could he be so calm about this? Bonnie was struck dumb. But then she remembered, David Nash always had been difficult to shock. He was practical-minded – a man with solutions rather than problems. And he’d presumably had advance warning. Evangeline must have been in touch with him regularly, filling him in on Bonnie’s life back in New Zealand. But did this photo mean that Tui was aware she had a sister? No, it couldn’t – Kit would have called her if that was the case – or Simon. Evangeline must have become friends with Tui and Kit without coming clean about who she was. And who could blame her? Certainly not Bonnie – the queen of omitting truth.

‘Genie really does look well,’ David remarked contentedly, handing Bonnie her phone back.

‘I thought she was called Evangeline,’ murmured Bonnie, who thought she might fall over if she didn’t find a chair to sit on soon. David, perhaps sensing this, led her into a very modern kitchen and pulled out a stool.

‘Oh, she is,’ he said cheerfully. ‘But we call her Genie for short. She always felt like she made a wish come true for me and for Anna, so it made sense. Now, would you like coffee or tea? I can make a pot of either.’

He was reaching for the kettle as if all this were completely normal, as if women he hadn’t seen for almost thirty years regularly showed up at his front door in search of the children they’d given him.

‘Tea,’ she managed, easing herself into a sitting position and gazing again at the photo of her two daughters. How could this be happening? How could Evangeline be there in New Zealand, casually hunting for penguins with Tui and Kit, while she, Bonnie, was here? Evangeline had gone to find her at exactly the same time as Bonnie had sought her out – it was enough to make her head spin.

David filled the silence by putting the water on to boil, readying two mugs and fetching the milk from the fridge. Bonnie watched him with unseeing eyes, envious of him for having tasks to complete while all she could do was sit there, trying to make sense of everything.

‘How long has Genie been in New Zealand?’ she asked, and David frowned mid-stir, then referred to the calendar pinned up by the back door.

‘She flew out on the eleventh,’ he said, blowing air into his cheeks. ‘Gosh, that was quite a while ago, wasn’t it?’

‘That’s the same day I flew here,’ Bonnie replied numbly.

‘I assumed it must have been.’ David put a steaming mug down in front of her. Bonnie had been shivering pretty much non-stop since she found out about Anna, and now she wrapped both her hands around the cup in an attempt to extract some much-needed warmth.