‘Mum, are you okay? We missed you.’
‘I missed you both too. More than anything.’ She gives me a quick hug. ‘Pack your things. We’re leaving.’ That’s music to my ears. I don’t want to stay here any longer. She gets her laptop out and uses the Wi-Fi on her phone to log on to the internet.
‘Can you have Cora?’ I go to put my little sister next to her on the settee.
‘No, I need a minute. I have to find somewhere for us to stay and it can’t wait.’
‘Where are we going?’
‘I don’t know,’ she shouts, more out of frustration than at me.
Cora yanks my hair because she wants to go down, so I let her wander around the apartment. Mika comes on the TV again. She toddles over and stands in front of the screen laughing. Mum turns it off, and Cora cries again. ‘Want Mika…’
‘Mum, what’s going on?’
‘I can’t talk about this now. You just have to trust me, Morgan, okay? Can you do that?’
She’s treating me like I’m a baby now. It’s okay when they want me to look after Cora, but when it comes to what the hell is going on with our family, I’m suddenly not grown up. ‘I’ve been stuck here for two days worried sick, Mum. You were in hospital and now you’re saying we’re leaving. For what it’s worth, I’m happy we’re leaving. I never wanted to move from Bristol but no one asked me what I wanted. You and Dad decided and we come here and I miss Mai and my school and now you won’t tell me what’s going on. It’s the letters, isn’t it? I know it is. It’s also Dad, he’s going through something, probably losing his shit.’
‘Morgan, stop it with the language.’
Really, all she cares about is me using the word shit. I fold my arms and stand in front of her with a downturned mouth. I’m not packing or moving until she tells me what’s going on.
‘What are you waiting for?’ She carries on tapping away on her keyboard.
I lean over and see that she’s looking for a holiday rental. ‘You’ve been in hospital. I thought you were going to lose the baby and I was scared…’ I can’t hold my emotions back now, however silly I feel. If I could be anything, I’d choose brave but I’m so far away from brave. Tears prick at my eyes. ‘I was scared that something would happen to you and that me and Cora would have no one.’
She gasps and dumps her laptop on the settee. Her arms wrap around me. This is what I need. I’ve missed my mum and I want her to hug me and tell me that everything’s going to work out, but I know it isn’t. We’re leaving Dad.
‘I love you so much, Morgan, and I’m fine. All I have is a little infection.’
‘Why are you blaming Dad? I know he’s down there and he’s been drinking, but we can’t leave him here, not with these people.’
She holds me close. ‘I’m sorry to tell you this, but he cheated on me, Morgan, which is why we need to leave. He’ll always be your dad and he’s not a bad person. We’ll work something out, but for now, I need some space to think.’ Mum swallows hard. She hates Dad and I think I hate him too. How could he cheat on Mum?
‘Who is she?’
Mum ignores my question.
I burst into tears. Mum needs to know about Klara and what Quinn did to Great-Aunt Dorette. ‘Mum, I don’t trust Quinn.’ I wipe my eyes. Cora cries so Mum turns Mika’s Magical Bicycle on again. We are both tolerating this tune at the moment for an easy time of it with Cora.
‘I saw the den and all your notes on the wall.’
My eyes widen. She was never meant to see all that but it’s too late now. She’s seen the note that was to Quinn, the one I took and hid from her. She now knows everything I know except for the Klara thing because I haven’t told another living person what I heard Harry and Quinn talking about last night. ‘Harry and I thought we could work out who wrote the letters.’
‘And did you?’
I shrug.
‘What do you think?’
I can tell what I have to say is important to Mum, and for once I feel like I’m seen and heard, not just someone to throw Cora at. ‘Up until last night, I thought it was Ray or Tessa but now I think it’s Quinn.’
Mum sits and takes a couple of deep breaths. ‘It’s not Quinn.’
I furrow my brows. It has to be. ‘When you went to the hospital, Cora fell asleep. I asked Zoe if I could pop to Harry’s quickly and she said it was okay. When I got there, I heard shouting and Harry was accusing Quinn of stealing a character that Great-Aunt Dorette created and she had a big contract. She had a reason to get Dorette out of the picture, Mum. I also saw the notebook. When I was at Harry’s I saw a little book sticking out of Quinn’s bag. When she went out of the room, I snuck a look and there were pictures and notes about this character, and the notebook belonged to Dorette. The writing in the book was the same writing that was used on the letters that everyone received. Black ink capitals. I believe that Quinn wrote the letters to try to get rid of us because she didn’t want you to ever find out that she stole Great-Aunt Dorette’s work, and to stop her talking, she pushed her off the balcony.’
‘I know all this but Quinn didn’t write the letters.’
