That night, Meg decided she didn’t need Issy or the DNA results. She’d lived almost thirty years without a sister or a father, and she was just fine. Georgie was right. They were arseholes. Entitled, spineless, greedy arseholes.
All that DNA stuff was a distraction from the reason she’d come down here in the first place. The story. It was bigger than sour grapes about privatising an old building. Much bigger. She and Pete were close, so close, to exposing years’ worth of corruption at the expense of locals in this town. Their story would incriminate Spencer Ashworth, Hugh Thorburn and Lindsay Council, and probably uncover systemic corruption at Ashworth Property and at the highest levels of the state government.
But how could they prove what they knew? Pete had played Evan Purcell, plying him with shots and appealing to his ego to make him talk more than he should, but it wasn’t enough to publish. They needed more.
She would call Pete tomorrow and come up with a plan, but first, she needed to speak to Chrissy. She was family. Real family. It was only right to tell her the truth.
The CLOSEDsign was still up when Meg arrived at the Apple Tree the following morning. The day was already warm, the air thick with humidity. She knocked on the glass pane, looking to see if Georgie was there yet, but it was just Chrissy. She looked up, a slight frown on her forehead as she unlatched the door.
‘I didn’t know you were still here,’ Chrissy said.
‘Yeah, I’m … I’m still working on my …’ She let the sentence hang there, unfinished, not wanting to lie anymore.
‘You want a coffee?’
‘Cappuccino would be great, thanks.’
Meg sat at a table close to the counter, watching Chrissy, admiring her fluid movements as she worked the coffee machine. There was some flicking and tapping, then the squealing sound of frothing milk.
There were footsteps outside and Georgie appeared. ‘Morning,’ she said.
Chrissy looked out from behind the machine and frowned. ‘If you’re up at this hour, Georgie, something funny’s going on.’ She looked from Georgie to Meg, then back at her daughter. ‘What’s the story?’
Meg looked at Georgie, who took her phone out of her back pocket and opened the Heritage DNA app. She tapped twice and put the phone on the counter, where Chrissy could see the Venn diagram, interlocking circles linking Meg and Georgie.You and Megan Hunter,read the text beneath.Suggested relationship: Cousins. 12.8% shared DNA: 656 Cm.
They watched Chrissy as she read the diagram. She looked up, dark eyes shining. ‘You did a DNA test?’
Georgie nodded. ‘I got the result a few days ago. Meg is your niece.’
Chrissy let out a loud sob, then another, resting her elbows on the counter and holding her head in her hands, her body shuddering with the power of the emotion.
Georgie put a hand on her back. ‘It’s okay, Mum, this is good news. This means Anna is alive.’
Meg sat quietly watching Chrissy cry, not sure what to do or say.
Eventually Chrissy looked up, studying Meg’s face. ‘I knew,’ she said, taking a shaky breath. ‘The first time I saw you, your eyes, I knew. They … I … And then you asked me about Anna and told me about your mother—Jenny, is it?’
Meg nodded.
‘And you said she has dementia … I just … I couldn’t bear the pain of it, losing her again. It felt … it felt like too much, with Robbie sick, and the pain my parents went through …’
‘I’m so sorry,’ Meg said.
‘It was easier to pretend and hope you would go away,’ Chrissy whispered.
‘I’m so sorry,’ Meg said again, crying silent tears.
Chrissy sat down at the table and stared at the wood grain.
‘I’ll make tea,’ Georgie said.
When Meg felt Chrissy was ready, she said, ‘Anna got pregnant while she was working for the Ashworths. There was an incident, apparently, whatever that means. Isobel Ashworth did a DNA test too. It says we’re half-siblings.’
Chrissy looked up. ‘Malcolm?’ she whispered, her eyes hard.
Meg nodded.
‘Did he assault her?’
