Again Ha Suran wasn’t sure. “I suppose it’s the first country that accepted him. I know other Russians from Harbin traveled to Sydney, so it must have been straightforward to get visas.”

“What a huge move for you both! And how heartbreaking to leave your family.”

Ha Suran didn’t sound bitter as she answered, only weary. “I went with my husband because he needed me, and I trusted he would always take care of me. But I was wrong.”

* * *

Later, when Ha Suran was too exhausted to talk anymore, Val sat beside her and described her life in Sydney, trying to glue together past and present.

“Do you remember my schoolfriend Peggy?” she asked. “The one with the freckles?” Ha Suran gave a slight nod. “She’s still my best friend today. She helped when I left Tony. In fact, she warned me not to marry him in the first place. I should make a mental note always to listen to Peggy’s advice, because she is clearly a better judge of character than me.”

She described her marriage, and Ha Suran surprised her by saying, “It sounds as though Tony is an unhappy man, like your father.”

Val had never thought of Tony as unhappy, but she saw in a flash that he was. He was forever complaining that someone younger had been promoted over his head at the office, that the golf club had admitted new members who dressed too scruffily, or that their neighbors had a better car than him. His parents were constantly comparing him to his brothers, who according to them were much more successful. That feeling of not being good enough pervaded Tony’s character and made him despise Val because she had been needy and desperate enough to marry him. All this came to her in a moment and she blinked in recognition.

She told Ha Suran about the furious rows since she left Tony and the way he had snatched her inheritance, then asked, “I don’t suppose you know what Dad kept in his safe deposit box, do you?”

Ha Suran shook her head. “He would never have shared that kind of information with me.”

Val remembered the photos that had been in her father’s old camera. She’d brought them with her, in a pocket of the suitcase.

“Nicole, darling, could you bring me those old photos?” she asked. Nicole was helping Li Suran to stir dinner in the big cooking pot, but she ran to find the pictures.

Ha Suran flicked through the first four shots without comment.

“I know they’re not very clear, but do you think these could be Dad’s family?” Val asked.

Ha Suran shook her head. “He never told me anything about his family. I don’t know if he had sisters, or who his parents were.” She squinted at one shot where the faces were slightly clearer. “I can’t see a resemblance.”