“But the house is so different to what Wilf must have been used to. How did he cope being up here in the wild?”
She sits back, cradling her glass. “He loved being surrounded by nature. He used to say he embraced it, all of it—the goodandthe bad. He didn’t try to fight it or hold it back.”
I become aware that another argument has erupted in the pool. I excuse myself and walk over, only to find the kids are disagreeing about the score. Unsure how to settle the argument, I declare the game a draw.
“Come on,” I say, “it’s time to play something else.”
“Will you come in?” repeats Archie.
I grimace. “I’d love to but not yet. Maybe later.”
I return to my seat and take another swig of my drink. “One thing that’s been puzzling me,” I say to Angelika, “is how did Wilf find me?”
She smiles. “Oh, that’s easy, darling: I helped him. We did it on my laptop, right here at this table.”
I sit forward. “But I don’t understand how he even knew I existed. How did he know my name?”
Angelika fiddles with her rings. “I thought your mother told him.”
My insides flip. “Mymum? But she died in 1989. And they weren’t in contact. … As far as I know, he wasn’t in touch with anyone from the family.”
She lifts a plucked eyebrow. “Well, I have a vague memory that Willie did have some contact with your mother.”
The shock of it stops my breath.
“I could be wrong,” she adds. “Remember this would have been before I knew him.”
I’m so shocked I can’t speak.
“Anyway, when Willie was writing his will and wondering what to do with the property,” Angelika continues, “he came tome and we looked you up on social media. He’d had the idea of leaving it to you but first he wanted to make sure you were gay.”
“‘Make sure’? What do you mean?”
“He already knew, darling.”
I feel like I’ve been punched. “But how?”
“I’m afraid I can’t remember. I’ve no idea at all. But I do know he was delighted to see pictures of you with your gay friends. There was one of you all at a foam party in Sitges and the caption said something about you being sisters. He loved that. I think I told you he used to call me his sister.”
I try to shake the shock out of my head but all I can think is that Wilf was in contact with Mum. And he knew I was gay.
“That’s when he decided he would leave you the house,” Angelika goes on. “It was the one place he and Arnaldo could celebrate their love, so he thought it would be fitting to leave it to his gay nephew.”
She explains that she accessed Edgar’s old account on LinkedIn and looked for an Adam Webb who worked in Manchester. Once they’d found me, they scoured the company’s website to discover my work email address. But I can’t concentrate on any of it.
Callum, Mabel and Archie bound over to the table.
“I’m hungry!”
“I’m thirsty!”
“Have you got my towel?”
I snap out of my trance and hand over their towels.
“Let me get you some drinks and snacks,” says Angelika. “I’ve stocked up for my granddaughters.”
I blink. “Oh, so you’ve got kids, too?”
