She held up the lapis necklace. ‘He sent this.’
Savannah sat down on the seat opposite and put a shy hand in Chloe’s.
‘Welcome, sister,’ she said gently. ‘I’m a little tired. My daughter is sick, so I’m not effusive, but it is so lovely to welcome you.’
‘Clary’s not well?’ said Indy.
‘A little off,’ Savannah said. ‘I’d like to go home early to her. She’ll love you,’ she said to Chloe. ‘You look like me and Eden, only with hair like hers.’
‘My mother would have loved to have met your children. She loved you all, talked about you, but she got sick when I was twelve and she was ill on and off for a long time before she died. It wasn’t possible then. I’m sorry. Indy, she told me you were elegant and beautiful and kind. “A born midwife”, she said when she heard you had qualified.’
Indy glowed at the compliment.
‘The twins, so different, so brilliant.’
‘Hardly,’ said Savannah softly.
Eden patted her twin’s hand. ‘Stop that,’ she said, sounding gruff when she really felt like crying. Why was Savannah like this? Her beautiful twin reduced to this pale, sad woman.
‘And Rory, who found me.’
‘Rory found you?’
‘When I was writing the book. I was looking through old photographs and there was one of Lori and I was sure she was pregnant.’ She stared at Indy. ‘I knew there was something going on, Indy.’
Her sister ruefully rubbed her forehead. ‘I knew it too but you were so little. I had to say there was nothing, that you were imagining it. You were a kid, Rory, and so was I, really. What teenager wants to think her father is having an affair?’
‘The book?’ said Eden.
‘The book she’s been writing,’ said Chantal. ‘She’s sold it and it’s about—’
Rory shot her a look but Chantal was determined. ‘If secrets are coming out, they need to come out properly. It’s about a woman coming to terms with being gay, a woman who grew up in a hotel who has an unknown sister.’
Everyone turned to look at Rory.
‘What?’ said Indy.
‘Any more secrets in it?’ asked Eden sharply.
Savannah started to laugh slightly manically. ‘Does it have everything in it? All the secrets?’
‘It’s fiction,’ insisted Rory.
‘Faction,’ said Indy crossly.
‘I’ll let you read it and you can decide,’ said Rory suddenly. ‘I’ll give them the money back, if you hate it.’
‘There’s money in this book?’ Eden looked pleased.
‘It doesn’t matter if there’s money in it – it’s all family secrets,’ said Indy.
Savannah spoke in a voice that was less dreamy than before.
‘Nobody ever knows what your true life is,’ she said. ‘People wrote about the Sorrento as if they knew and they didn’t. They made stuff up. I live a life where I pretend things to sell my business. Only we know the truth and if you say you made it up, then you made it up.’
They all stared at Savannah. ‘You control the narrative. People can do that, you know: say one thing when the reality is different. You can say you hung your story around the bones of our life but that it’s so different.’
‘What she says,’ agreed Rory.
