Ha Suran lay back, worn out by the effort of a couple of sips. “You must have so many questions for me, as I have for you. But first I will explain what happened when I left Sydney.”

Val shook her head. “Dad said you walked out on us, but that never rang true.”

“As if . . .” Ha Suran closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them to look Val in the eye. “You must remember how close you and I were.”

Val got a lump in her throat as she thought back to that time, when she had been so sad and lonely and mixed up. “I tried to ask about you, but Dad would never answer my questions. After a while he banned me from mentioning you. He said I was being a nuisance.”

Ha Suran spoke in a rush, as if trying to get the words out before her energy was expended. “Your father bought me a ticket home to visit my family in Harbin because I had not seen them since before the war. I thought you were coming with me so you could meet them, but at the last minute he said you couldn’t be taken out of school. I nearly didn’t board the ship—I had a bad feeling—but I yearned to see my parents. As soon as we set sail, I missed you so badly it was as if my heart had been wrenched from my body. I willed the time to go faster so I could get back to you.”

She put a hand over her eyes and there was a long pause, so long that Val wondered if she had fallen asleep, but then she continued. “I caught the train back to Tianjin, found the ship, and tried to board, but they told me my return ticket had been canceled and the money refunded. I argued till I was demented, but they would not relent: there was no ticket. Your father knew I could never raise enough to pay for it myself. You see how my family lives.” She gestured at their surroundings, and a tear rolled down her cheek.

Val could imagine the sense of panic, then the terrible anguish. She couldn’t carry on living if she lost Nicole and there was no hope of getting her back. She had often thought she would kill herself rather than live without her. “But why did he do it? Was your marriage unhappy?”

“Your father was always an unhappy man. I hoped that family life would lift his spirits, but it was his nature to be miserable and he couldn’t change.” She paused. “I have thought about this often and I’m still not sure I can answer fully why he got rid of me. I was an obedient wife but I was not the wife he wanted. I think perhaps he was ashamed of me. The Chinese were not popular in Australia at that time.”