The two of them lay silent and she felt the pull of sleep. Mario let go of her hand and wriggled on to his side, and as he got comfortable she heard the familiar knock of the headboard on the wall, which had worked its way loose over the years. Chutney pushed his head against her legs and got comfy in his own spot at the bottom of the bed, anchoring her foot.

‘We got lost, Bess, didn’t we? We got lost along the way. I feel like I never really knew you, not all of you, and that’s a lot for me to take in. I feel like you didn’t give me the chance. You could have told me about Ellory and that barrier would never have been there.’

She nodded through a fresh batch of tears, but knowing that tonight would be her first sleep unburdened by the secret that had weighted her dreams since she was sixteen years of age.

‘We’re going to break up our little family, Bess, aren’t we?’ His words were thick through his tears and her heart broke. She saw his broad shoulders shake as he cried.

‘I think we are,’ she managed, ‘but it’ll be okay, Mario. We’ll put it back together in a different shape. We’ll both start over.’

‘I think you’ve been waiting to start over, Bess, waiting to begin . . .’

He clicked off the lamp and she nodded into the darkness, knowing this to be true, but also aching with some of the fear that had dogged her life. Yes, they would both start over, but they would be okay, they would take what they had in their pockets and make the best out of it, and they would be okay . . .

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

August 24th 2021