“No. We never spoke again.” Robyn felt that familiar ache behind her ribs. “I went to the hospital where they’d taken you, and a nurse in the emergency department told me you were stable and that you’d been taken to the ward. They wouldn’t give me any more information, but that was enough. I knew you were alive. And that was the moment when everything changed. I was so relieved, it felt like a second chance. And I knew that even if I never saw you again, I was going to turn my life around. And I did. I took a long, hard look at myself and decided I didn’t like who I’d become.” She turned and saw tears on Christy’s cheeks. “I’ve upset you. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

“Don’t worry about that.” Christy mopped her cheeks with the heel of her hand. “Ignore me. It’s such a heartbreaking story. I can’t bear that you never talked again. It seems like such a waste, when the two of you were once so close.”

“I wrote her a card every year at first. I wanted so badly for her to know I’d changed. I wanted her to forgive me.” She’d wanted to do something to erase the anger and disappointment from her sister’s face. “But she never responded, and I wasn’t about to show up without her permission. And then I had that letter from you telling me she’d died.”

“I found the address buried among her things when I cleared the house out. She kept those cards you sent.”

“I wonder why.” Robyn liked to think that occasionally her sister had thought of her. She had to, surely, to have kept the cards? “I didn’t come to the funeral. It didn’t feel like the right time to be reacquainted.”

“I wasn’t in a good place.” Christy finished her second coffee. “I’d had so many huge changes in my life. Getting pregnant, being a mother. I’d barely adjusted to the rhythm of my life when she died. For a while I handled things the way she did. I kept busy. Created a routine. Didn’t think too much.”

“It must have been hard for you, after she died. But you had Seb and Holly, of course. And Alix. I like Alix. You’re lucky to have a friend like her.” Robyn saw something flicker across Christy’s face.

“Yes, I am.” Christy stared out of the window for a moment, lost in thought.

“Christy? Is everything all right?”

“Oh...yes.” Christy smiled. “I’m fine. Just...thinking. Everything you’ve told me, it’s so much to take in. I’m sorry now that I didn’t get in touch with you years ago. And I’m sorry you and my mother didn’t manage to mend the relationship.”

“For a long time I thought about nothing else. I beat myself up for not trying to get my life together sooner. For making bad decisions. For not somehow finding a way forward with my sister. I lay awake at night wanting to somehow turn the clock back.” She’d forgiven herself, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t still feel the ache of regret. “I suppose any relationship can snap if it’s stretched far enough.”