Nicole shook her head. “We watched Skippy on TV, then Auntie Peggy played Snap with me. Mom, can we get a TV? Please?”

Val sighed. “One day, sweetie. When Mommy has a bit more cash.”

Once Nicole was tucked up in bed, Val returned to the pile of papers. The probate document was near the top, attached by a paper clip to the form Tony had filled out requesting it. She noticed that the grant was in both their names, not just hers. Maybe that was the way it worked when you were a married couple, but it annoyed her all the same. Tony had barely known her father.

She flicked further through the pile: correspondence with the tax office, with the estate agent who had sold the house—and then her eye was caught by a brightly colored Chinese stamp with pictures of smiling workers and a Communist-style logo. It was a letter, addressed to her, that had come all the way from China. The handwriting was neat and the envelope had been opened. Tony had obviously read it and decided not to pass it on.

Val pulled the letter from the envelope and scanned the first few lines: Can it really be you? After all this time? I am overwhelmed with joy to hear from you. She clutched her throat and turned the pages over to check the signature: Your loving mother, Ha Suran.

She dropped the letter onto the table and covered her face with both hands, so overcome that it was several minutes before she could read the rest: When your father sent me back to Manchuria, my heart broke in two. He knew I could never raise the fare to return to Australia as I was penniless and my family is very poor. I wrote hundreds of letters but never received a reply, and I guessed he must be keeping them from you.

Val was stunned at the cruelty of this. What if Tony snatched Nicole and never let Val see or hear from her again? The pain would be unbearable. Why had her father done that to Ha Suran—and to her?

Ha Suran did not explain why she had been sent away, but she did ask dozens of questions about Val’s life. Was she married? Did she have children? Where did she live? Could she send a photograph? Was she happy? She longed to know that her little girl was doing well.

Near the end of the letter, she wrote that she did not want to cause alarm, but that her health was poor and she did not expect to live much longer. She wrote that Val should not be sad, because now she could die happy knowing that her daughter was safe.