‘Hell, no,’ said Matt, amiable as ever. ‘I’ll go up the chippy. Boys?’ he yelled, leaving the room. ‘What do you want from the chippy?’

Paula was left alone with her laptop, the screen frozen on that last frame of her sister. Her sister. All of a sudden, Frankie had become real in Paula’s mind, no longer a shadowy threatening figure, but an actual person with a shy smile and a hopeful, questioning look in her eye. But over a week had now passed since the day of the party and, as far as Paula was aware, Frankie hadn’t made a second attempt to get in touch with the Mortimers. Had Jeanie scared her away? Was this minute or so of footage the only thing she would have of her brand-new sister? Because all of a sudden, to Paula’s surprise, she realized she wanted more.

The front door banged as Matt set off again, and Paula’s fingers flew over the keyboard as she composed a quick email to her brothers. Hi all, she typed:

So this is a bit weird. Pics – and a video!! – of our half-sister attached. No denying the family resemblance! I can’t help feeling intrigued; how about you guys?

Still no word from Mum, I take it. No news here. She didn’t even reply when Luke texted her a pic of the pie he made in Food Tech, which is so unlike her, I actually rang the hotel again to check she was okay. She’s fine apparently, but still doesn’t want to talk to anyone. Poor Mum. Feel so bad for her. I’ve arranged to meet Dad for lunch in town tomorrow, so will chat to him about it then.

Hope to see you all soon. John, are you still okay to drop the boys at cricket club on Sat? Give my love to your other halves,

P xxx

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

Until Robyn met John she had never really held down a very long or enjoyable relationship. She was quite shy and awkward, ‘backward about coming forward’, as her mother put it, and never felt as if she was getting the whole boyfriend-thing quite right. Clearly she wasn’t, because men kept finishing with her after about six weeks – and to make matters worse, they almost always said the same sort of thing: Robyn, you’re a lovely person and you’ll make someone a great wife one day, but right now I just want to have fun. Implying, in other words, that she was no fun at all. Which didn’t exactly fill a girl with confidence.