But any time she mentioned her name, the profound pain in Frank’s face tore her apart. So for Frank’s sake, she stopped speaking about her. That meant the boys never even knew she’d been born. It also meant she gave all the love that was meant for two babies to one. All of her protection. All the time.

And maybe that’s why she’d been blinded to Tony’s flaws.

Chapter Twenty-Four

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Wednesday 6 January

Darren

Darren was scared. It seemed ridiculous to feel afraid of a simple follow-up with the doctor after everything that he and his family had been through. For crying out loud, his brother was gone. There was a sister he’d never even known about. And here he was, sitting in the waiting-room, nervous to hear about a stupid mole.

To be honest, he’d prefer not to know the results. As long as he avoided hearing the truth, he could pretend everything was okay. But at the same time, he knew he needed to pull himself together and face up to it. He’d told Sage that the doctor had called him before Christmas, asking him to come back in. Darren, Sage had said, you need to know. She’d made him promise he would go and find out what was going on. Things were progressing well with them. Slowly, but well. And Doggo finally had a real name. Leo, after the star sign of the woman who’d saved him. It suited him. Although Darren still often called him Doggo.

‘Darren Lewis.’ Doctor Clermont gave him a friendly smile as she summoned him in for his appointment. He tried to tell if it was a ‘I’m about to deliver terrible news’ smile or an ‘everything is fine’ smile, but it was impossible to decipher.

He followed her into her consulting room and took a seat.

‘You’ve been difficult to pin down,’ she said, giving him a slightly stern look over her glasses. She picked up a piece of paper and placed it in front of him. ‘Now,’ she said. ‘Here’s the main reason I needed you back in.’

Darren braced himself.

‘I forgot to get you to sign this form.’

*

He was still laughing at himself when he answered the call from Charlotte as he left the doctor’s office. It turned out that the other reason the doctor had wanted to see him was to let him know his cholesterol was a little high, but nothing to really worry about as long as he cut back on saturated fats. Apart from that, he was generally healthy. The mole had been nothing sinister. He couldn’t believe he’d put this off, imagining it was going to be the worst outcome possible.