Of all the things Elle had imagined the sisters’ fight to have been about—this hadn’t been one of them. She tried to imagine what her gran, as a fifteen-year-old, would have gone through at the time. Her family, her friends, her whole town looking down on her for having her reputation ruined and no one to turn to.

Oh Gran, she said silently, feeling her heart break as it all sank in.

Moira reached out a thin hand and placed it on Elle’s arm. ‘Tell me you had a good life?’ she said, almost pleading. ‘I prayed for you every day and wished I’d been able to do something different.’

Elle sighed. Had anyone cared that a young woman had endured the loss of a baby amid God only knew what trauma from some backyard abortionist? Elle felt sick trying to even picture a fifteen-year-old girl going through all that. And then the humiliation of the whole town knowing about it? The local minister using her as a public example? What kind of barbaric society had this been back then? It was a relief that Gran had been taken away from here, Elle thought, fury burning inside her at the treatment her grandmother had suffered at the hands of people who should have cared for her—not shamed her. Suddenly Elle realised that maybe this was the reason Gran had been so protective of Lilly when she’d fallen pregnant and been kicked out of home. Maybe Gran was remembering how it felt to be abandoned by those she loved.

But as she looked at the frail old woman in the recliner opposite her now, some of the fire went out. It was so long ago, and time had all but erased the horrific event from local memory, not to mention from the family. It was obvious this had become a dirty secret everyone had chosen to bury, and yet Elle couldn’t help but feel angry.

I don’t want to see her suffering like this, Gran said sadly. It all happened far too long ago. Tell her I was happy, Elspeth. Put her out of her misery.

‘I had a wonderful life,’ Elle said, holding Moira’s pale, watery gaze. ‘I found a man who adored me, and I had a family who loved and cherished me every day.’ Elle’s throat tightened as she fought to hold back her tears. She’d done what Gran had asked, but she refused to let go of her anger completely, adding with a touch of steel to her tone, ‘Leaving was the best thing I ever did.’

Moira nodded slowly and leaned her head back against the headrest, closing her eyes.