‘She was my night nurse.’
Rosa nodded.
‘She had a daughter,’ Issy went on, ‘after she left our home.’
‘She did?’ Rosa seemed genuinely surprised. Maybe she knew less than Issy thought.
‘Her daughter is my half-sister.’
Rosa looked away, frowning, eyes distant. ‘How do you know this?’
‘She’s here in Hartwell. We did DNA testing. We share twenty-three per cent of our DNA, which puts it in the range of a half-sibling.’
Rosa held her gaze, biting her lip, then she looked away, still frowning.
‘What happened, Rowie?’
‘I can’t say.’
‘Because you won’t? Or because you don’t know?’
Rosa closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead. ‘All I will say is this.’ She stared out at the street beyond the fence as she spoke. ‘There was … an incident, which happened while Anna was living with the family.’
‘An incident?’ What did she mean by that? An incident? An incident which left a young woman pregnant? Issy swallowed, feeling suddenly off kilter. Did her father …? My God.
‘Rosa?’
‘I’m sorry, darling.’ Rosa looked at her now, something vast and sorrowful in her dark eyes. She put a warm hand on Issy’s bare arm. ‘I can’t talk about it. I’ve already said more than I should.’
‘Why? Why can’t you talk about it? I don’t understand.’
‘I can’t talk about it anymore or my boy won’t be able to stay in his school.’
‘Your boy?’ Rosa’s boys weren’t born then. How on earth could this impact them? What did it have to do with their schooling? ‘Rosa, what does this have to do with your boys?’
Then it fell into place.
‘Oh my God,’ Issy said. Rosa’s boys went to Dalton, the same prestigious private school Issy’s father and brothers had attended. Heather had got them in, even though they weren’t waitlisted as babies like all the sons of old boys whose enrolment was a birthright. Once Rosa’s sons were accepted, Heather had paid the fees. The older two were at university now, but her youngest was still at school.
Thirty thousand dollars a year, times three boys, times six years.
Issy did a rough calculation. It was over half a million dollars.
‘They did a deal with you, didn’t they?’ Issy met Rosa’s eyes. ‘They bought your silence.’
Chapter 49
New Year’s Day usually made Meg feel hopeful. There was something so promising about the first day of a brand-new year, but today she could barely lift her head off the pillow. She lay in the oversized bed between the crisp cotton sheets, reliving the disastrous events of the night before.
After twenty-nine years, Meg had found a sister, only to lose her again. Issy hated her. And why wouldn’t she? Meg had lied about who she was and what she was doing in Hartwell. She’d had no choice, obviously. She couldn’t tell Issy she was investigating corrupt deals done by her family, but that didn’t change the fact that as far as Issy was concerned, Meg was a liar.
Her phone flashed on the bedside table.Pete.
‘Hey,’ she said.
‘Hey, yourself. Happy New Year, Hunter. You have a good night?’
‘I drank Champagne in my hotel room with Isobel Ashworth.’
