Back The Family Secret
Chapters (51)
  1. The Family Secret
  2. Copyright
  3. Praise for Tracy Buchanan’s novels
  4. What readers loved about Tracy Buchanan’s last novel, The Lost Sister …
  5. Dedication
  6. Table of Contents
  7. Prologue
  8. Chapter One
  9. Chapter Two
  10. Chapter Three
  11. Chapter Four
  12. Chapter Five
  13. Chapter Six
  14. Chapter Seven
  15. Chapter Eight
  16. Chapter Nine
  17. Chapter Ten
  18. Chapter Eleven
  19. Chapter Twelve
  20. Chapter Thirteen
  21. Chapter Fourteen
  22. Chapter Fifteen
  23. Chapter Sixteen
  24. Chapter Seventeen
  25. Chapter Eighteen
  26. Chapter Nineteen
  27. Chapter Twenty
  28. Chapter Twenty-One
  29. Chapter Twenty-Two
  30. Chapter Twenty-Three
  31. Chapter Twenty-Four
  32. Chapter Twenty-Five
  33. Chapter Twenty-Six
  34. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  35. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  36. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  37. Chapter Thirty
  38. Chapter Thirty-One
  39. Chapter Thirty-Two
  40. Chapter Thirty-Three
  41. Chapter Thirty-Four
  42. Letter to my readers
  43. Acknowledgments
  44. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  45. With the loss of her mother, Becky aches to find her sister. She knows she cannot move forward in her life without answers…
  46. A girl has gone missing. You’ve never met her, but you’re to blame…
  47. You’d kill to protect your child…Wouldn’t you?
  48. Everything you’ve built your life on is a lie. And no one has been telling the truth for a very long time…
  49. How far would you go for the one you love the most?
  50. Also by Tracy Buchanan
  51. About the Publisher

Lumin nods. ‘I – I think I was here once before, when the waterfall was frozen like this.’ She squeezes her eyes shut and crouches down, thinking. Then she looks up at Amber. ‘I think – I think I was watching someone climb it. Is that even possible?’

‘Maybe if you had a pickaxe handy,’ Amber replies.

Lumin closes her eyes again, putting her hand to her temple as she focuses on her memories. ‘Not just one man climbing it, but two. Both with dark hair.’ She opens her eyes again. ‘Dark hair like the man I had a nightmare about.’

Amber goes to Lumin and puts her arm around her shoulders. ‘Don’t dwell on that dream too much. Dreams are weird. I dreamt I married Gordon Brown once.’

But Lumin doesn’t look convinced. And Amber can’t help but wonder if there is some truth in her dream, a memory resurfacing just as one is now.

‘Look, why don’t we take a drive around the loch?’ she says. ‘Let’s try to find the lodge you drew. If the waterfall is real then the lodge must be real too.’

By the time they return to their car, the snow is coming down even harder, quickly blanketing the ground and turning their surroundings into a symphony of white. Lumin looks frustrated, kicking at the snow with the Dr Martens Amber had lent her. Amber feels her frustration too. The more it snows, the more chance their quest will be delayed. But at least they are at the loch now.

‘The hotel I booked for us isn’t far,’ Amber says, opening the car door for Lumin. ‘We’ll circle the loch then head back to the hotel to wait the heavy snow out.’

Lumin nods, quiet.

The car starts, no problem, the snow tyres squeaking over the newly laid snow.

‘Keep your eyes peeled,’ Amber says as they set off around the loch. ‘And shout if you recognise anything.’

But after twenty minutes of driving, they have seen nothing, just more snow and icy trees.

‘There’s nothing like the lodge around here,’ Lumin says, her hands balling in frustration. ‘There’s nothing much at all, really. And the snow’s getting heavier,’ she adds, watching as the windscreen wipers battle to keep up with the snowfall. ‘We should head back before we get stuck.’

Amber wants to say no, that they shouldn’t give up. But she knows Lumin is right. She can feel the car beginning to struggle with the blanket of fresh snow on the ground, even with her special tyres. ‘Maybe you’re right,’ she says.