‘Your father wrote to me after you left that summer,’ said Sophie, filling in more of the cracks which had opened up in my understanding of that time. ‘He said he was sorry for leaving. That discovering Hope had been one of the biggest shocks of his life. He also said that he would support us financially, that he would have been doing it since you were born, Hope, had he known about you. He also said that his marriage was a sham, but he couldn’t bring himself to end it, Tess. He said he couldn’t do anything that would risk your happiness and that he still loved your mum.’

I looked at Dad and, finding tears in his eyes, let mine flow unchecked. All the time I had assumed he loved work more than me and Mum, he was in fact using it as a sanity saver and to help keep two families financially afloat. He wasn’t the selfish, work-driven guy I had him down as at all and he never had been.

‘I had no idea,’ I sniffed.

This time I reached for his hand while Sophie reached for Hope’s. Dad slipped his other hand into Sophie’s and Hope grabbed mine.

I’ve no idea how long we sat there, each of us lost in our own thoughts, but I was the one who eventually spoke first.

‘So,’ I asked, ‘have you and Sophie been in touch all this time?’

‘Yes,’ he said. ‘Ever since that summer.’

‘And you hadn’t been here long before I worked out who you were, Tess,’ Sophie admitted. ‘I didn’t say anything to your dad to begin with, but he was so worried when you told him you were staying away for longer, that I had to tell him you were here and safe in Wynmouth.’

‘So, all the time I thought I was free,’ I said aloud, ‘you were keeping tabs on me, Sophie.’

‘Sort of,’ she acknowledged. ‘But had you gone home when you originally planned, I would have kept your secret. I’m sorry for dobbing you in, Tess.’

‘But what else could you do?’ I said, feeling slightly rattled but at the same time knowing that she had been in a difficult position. ‘It’s fine.’

It was strange, and if I was being truthful, a little annoying to think that there had been a spy in the camp from the moment I had arrived, but not as strange as realizing that she had been living with the knowledge that—

‘Oh my god,’ I said, turning to Hope. ‘We’re . . .’

‘Sisters!’ Hope gasped back. ‘Bloody hell, Tess, we’re sisters!’

*

I was still well and truly reeling from the revelations the beginning of my day had brought about, but thankfully I wasn’t treading the unexpected path alone. Hope was journeying along it with me and it was a comfort to have her by my side.