He left Liam to finish the deliveries alone. He went to the room at the back of the pub, over to the wall of photos he’d looked at so many times. He stood in front of the one taken at his father’s retirement party. Emmet’s three brothers had flown in from Canada and the US. There they were, the four of them, either side of their parents. That same photo had appeared in the local paper. He looked at each of them in turn. If Eliza was there too, would she look like the missing part of a set? Like their long-lost sister? Half-sister technically, but still.

It couldn’t be true. It couldn’t. His parents had the strongest, longest marriage he’d known.

After that, he’d tried to get back to work, but the idea wouldn’t leave his head. He couldn’t talk about it with Dervla. Not yet. He told Liam that his mother had called. She needed an urgent handyman job done. He’d be back soon. Liam happily waved him off, turning the radio up even before he’d left the pub.

He rang the bell at his mother’s apartment. No answer. He phoned her. No answer again. He had a key but he’d left it back at his house. About to go and get it, he heard his name being called. His mother’s neighbour. A nosy woman in her sixties. She had a yappy white dog at the end of a leash.

‘Your mam was out and about early this morning,’ she said cheerily. ‘I was out walking Pumpkin, saw her go into the castle hotel. It’s well for some, I thought. Breakfast out on a weekday.’

He tried ringing her doorbell again. This time she answered. She was immaculately dressed and groomed, as always.

‘Emmet! Is everything okay?’

She must have asked him that question thousands of times in his life. ‘I’m grand. Can I come in?’

‘Of course. You’re sure everything’s okay? You look a bit flushed. Tea? Coffee?’

‘Neither thanks.’ He took a seat in her spotless living room. He recalled his father sitting in these chairs, standing against that fireplace, watching TV in this living room. It had never suited Hugh. He’d always been much more at home in the rooms above the pub. If it had been his choice, that’s where he would have liked to die too, Emmet felt sure. Instead of in that hospital room, machines beeping, all of them gathered around him —

‘Has something happened?’ Sheila asked, sitting down.

He couldn’t put it off. ‘Ma, we had a visitor to the pub yesterday. Dervla introduced you at the quiz, I think? Eliza, from Australia. Jeannie’s daughter. You remember Jeannie?’