There is no one to give a eulogy as such, but Didier from the resort says a few words about how the mountains can give and can take away and how saddened the entire resort is that this man was taken so young. I read the Charlotte Brontë poem – I made a big deal to the funeral director of how I had helped Adam to plan the funeral and lied about how he had asked me to read the poem and to help him scatter the ashes because he didn’t want to do it by himself.

‘Everybody Hurts’ plays and I watch as the curtain closes behind the coffin.

Later, I will collect the ashes. I’m going to take them to the top of the last lift Dad took and let them go. I said that that was what Adam had planned to do and I’d like to pay my respects to both men by doing it for him. No one else can be bothered with it; they’re happy to have the job taken off their hands. No one cares about my dad now but me. Everyone else is dead, except Adam, who also doesn’t care and will be dead soon too.

And as for Adam saying he was my biological father? It’s not true. Mama would have told me. He just said that in a desperate attempt to try to make me call an ambulance. Which I did, eventually, but only because I knew it was already too late for him. And either way, Mama hated him. She blamed him for killing the love of her life. It was what he did that drove her to suicide. It was what he did that ruined my childhood. I did the right thing. He wasn’t my father.

Epilogue

Six months later

Ria

I smooth my hand over my bump and feel a small kick. I didn’t ever expect to enjoy being pregnant, but actually it’s kind of nice. Cosy.

We are having a girl. Hugo is so excited. The house is full of flowers and little gifts for me; he can’t help himself.

While Hugo and I will probably never exactly be Romeo and Juliet, since I told him about what happened in the past, we’ve grown a lot closer. Hugo has made me see a therapist and while I never thought therapy would be my thing, it’s made me see things more clearly.