‘Of course it must,’ I replied softly, knowing only too well what that felt like. ‘But please, Beatriz, you should at least take some comfort from the fact that she took the moonstone necklace with her when she left the Casa. And then passed it on to me. The connection it held to you must have been important to her, despite everything that happened before and since. Maybe more than anything, it shows that underneath, she did love you.’

‘Perhaps.’ Beatriz nodded slowly, the ghost of a smile touching her dry lips. ‘And now, my dear, may I ask you to ring the bell for the nurse? I‘m afraid I must surrender and take one of those ghastly pills which knock me out, but at least allow me to tolerate the pain.’

‘Of course.’ I pressed the bell and watched as Beatriz held out a hand weakly to me.

‘Maia, please tell me that you won‘t let the story I‘ve told you interfere with your future. Your mother and father may have let you down, but you must know that myself and your grandfather never stopped thinking of you and loving you. And your reappearance means I can be finally at peace.’

I moved towards her and put my arms around her, for the first time embracing the physical presence of a blood relative. And only wishing that we had more time left together.

‘Thank you for seeing me. And although I didn‘t find my mother, I found you. And that‘s enough,’ I said gently.

The nurse arrived in the room. ‘Maia, are you here in Rio tomorrow?’ Beatriz asked me suddenly.

‘I can be, yes.’

‘Then come back and visit me again. I have told you about the bad things, but if you can spare the time, let‘s use what we have left to get to know each other better. You can‘t imagine how much I‘ve longed to discover who you are.’

I watched as Beatriz opened her mouth obediently to take the pills the nurse was proffering. ‘See you at the same time tomorrow,’ I said.

Her hand fluttered a weak goodbye, and I left the room.

49

Back at the hotel, I lay down on my bed, curled up into a ball and fell fast asleep. When I woke, I lay thinking about Beatriz and what she had told me, probing my newly opened consciousness for an emotional reaction. Surprisingly, I found little pain, even though the story my grandmother had related was dreadful by anyone’s standards.

I began to think about the profound reaction I’d had to the children I’d seen only yesterday at the favela, dancing for their lives, and realised that it had perhaps been the result of a connection I had with them that I hadn’t understood at the time; I was now almost certain that I too had been born in a favela. My mother’s actions – whatever her motivation at the time – had undoubtedly saved me from a desperately uncertain future. And besides, whoever my mother had been, or my father, I had found a blood grandmother who genuinely seemed to care for me.