‘And you knew nothing about any of this?’ Jessica asked, her eyebrows arched in surprise. ‘About this family connection? Because it doesn’t sound like this is an old lady with a few euros to her name, it sounds much, much more substantial. It sounds like…’ She shook her head. ‘Rose, this sounds like something that could change a person’s life. Have you ever even heard of the Santiago family? Have you been to Buenos Aires before?’
‘I knew nothing of it, and I would bet that my mother knew nothing, either. This isn’t the sort of thing she’d have kept from me, especially when we had so long together before she passed away. We told each other everything these past few months.’ Rose closed her eyes, suddenly remembering the little box with the horse figurine inside; how confused she’d been about the clues. So much had happened since then that she hadn’t had time to think about them, but this brought it all back. She’d received unexpected correspondence from lawyers twice now in the space of a few months. ‘Actually…’ Rose leapt to her feet and ran to her bedroom, reaching around in her bedside drawer until her fingers connected with the wooden box. When she returned, Jessica had a knife in her hand again and was chopping up mushrooms for her famous carbonara, but she stopped and washed her hands when Rose returned.
‘I think it might have something to do with this,’ Rose said, breathless all of a sudden, the rush of what it had felt like discovering these clues for the first time coming back to her. ‘It has to be connected, otherwise it’s all just too much of a coincidence.’
Jessica took the box from her and opened it, taking out the figurine and the piece of silk and looking bewildered as she lifted her gaze.
‘What are these?’ Jessica asked. ‘Rose, where did you get them from, and why are they in this little box?’
‘I think,’ Rose said, looking up into Jessica’s wide eyes, ‘that these things are connected to my grandmother and her inheritance in Argentina. I found out just a couple of months ago that my grandmother was born at a place called Hope’s House, here in London, and until now, I had no way of knowing what they meant.’ She paused. ‘But this letter? It could explain everything.’
3
‘I’d say that I can’t believe you didn’t tell me about this, but you’ve had a lot on your mind,’ Jessica said.
Rose stared down at the horse figurine. ‘The day I arrived home from being given these things was the day we found out Mum’s final test results,’ she said. ‘I got home, excited to show everything to her and tell her about the meeting, but life fell apart before I had the chance. I put the box in a drawer, and as the days went past, I honestly never thought about it again. There was just too much to deal with.’
Jessica touched her shoulder as she passed, resuming her position in the kitchen. ‘Start at the very beginning. I want to hear it all.’
Rose sat back and told Jessica everything—the letter that had arrived, the meeting at the lawyer’s office, the other women who’d been summoned at the same time as her—and when she finished, Jessica was spooning her creamy chicken and mushroom carbonara into two bowls.
‘So just to get this straight: we’re to presume that your grandmother was born at this Hope’s House for unmarried mothers, but that she possibly had no idea that she was adopted?’ Jessica asked. ‘And then we’re also to presume thatyour mother had no idea about the adoption, the little box that was left behind, or the letter that just arrived? It was all a complete secret?’
‘I can’t conceive that either of them would have kept anything like this from me. We just weren’t a secret-keeping type of family. I mean, you know what we were like, we didn’t hold much back. We were three women living in one house, and we talked about everything.’
‘Did your grandmother talk about her childhood at all when you were growing up? Did she give any indication that she might have been adopted?’
‘She always said that her parents were very strict and expected a lot from their only daughter, which seemed to me just part and parcel of that generation, but that’s all. I don’t even know if families would have even talked about adoption back then. Wouldn’t they have just pretended they’d had her naturally, given the time?’ Although now she thought about it, there wouldn’t have been many families with only one child at that time, either. Perhaps that was telling in itself?
They sat in silence, eating, and Rose couldn’t help but think of the difference that food could make. There was something about a bowl of home-made, creamy Italian food that made her feel as if someone was wrapping their arms around her in a big hug. It was exactly what she’d needed.
‘I have a feeling that you haven’t decided whether or not to go back to your old job because you’ve been waiting for a sign,’ Jessica said.
Rose sighed. ‘You think this is my sign from the universe?’
‘Maybe,’ Jessica said. ‘I mean, if you wanted an excuse not to go back to your old life, then this is it. We’re both intelligent, educated women and I know that means we should be all about reason and logic, but sometimes we have to believe that there is something else at play, that the universe really is trying to tell ussomething. You have a choice here, Rose, and you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.’
Rose twirled the fettucine around her fork before looking up. ‘You think I should go to Argentina and meet with this law firm, don’t you?’
Jessica’s bright blue eyes met hers. ‘I think we should start by doing our research, but if everything adds up, then yes, I think you should go to Argentina. I think it would be crazy not to, given what’s at stake here.’
Rose nodded, turning her attention back to her food even though she’d almost entirely lost her appetite. Suddenly all she could think about was her mum, and how much she wished she was sitting in the kitchen with them, discussing the mystery, her eyes wide at the secret they were uncovering.She would have loved it. If Rose shut her eyes, she could hear her mother’s soft laugh, could imagine her throwing her head back when Jessica entertained them with a hilarious story, or watching her eyes widen as they googled Argentina. The three of them had always had so much fun together.
She opened her eyes when Jessica’s hand found hers, her fingers squeezing Rose’s and bringing her back to the present, her voice soft and full of understanding.
‘You’re going to get through this,’ Jessica whispered, but her eyes were glassy with unshed tears. ‘Every day will get a little bit easier, and eventually you’ll realise just how strong you are.’
‘I know. I just…’ Rose cleared her throat and wiped her tears from her cheeks with her fingertips. She was already so tired of crying all the time. ‘I just wish she was here, that’s all. I wish she was part of this. I wish we’d had longer together.’
‘What do you say we finish eating and snuggle up on the sofa to do some research or watch a film?’ Jessica asked. ‘I’m thinking chocolate or ice cream…’
Rose smiled through her tears. ‘I think that sounds perfect. Although if you stay any longer than three days, I’m not going to be able to fit into my jeans.’
Thirty minutes later, they’d decided to curl up in Rose’s bed instead of on the sofa, snuggled up in their pyjamas, each with a laptop balanced on their knees. And despite the chocolate being open between them, Rose was too busy trying to stop her jaw from falling open to even consider eating it.
‘Jess,’ she said, nudging her friend with her elbow. ‘It can’t be this place, can it?’
Jessica leaned over, her glasses perched on her nose. ‘That’sthe place you found?’
