Page 110 of The Stolen Child

Lily’s mum walked to her side, as if she sensed that Lily was pulling away from her. ‘I swear when I left London it was a spur-of-the-moment decision. I didn’t plan any further than getting Zach away from Baldwin. Then, when your dad assumed I was Kimberly, I was afraid to correct him.’

Lily desperately wanted to understand her mother’s motives as genuine. But she shook her head in denial at these words. ‘No, Mum! When Sally didn’t arrive in Dublin, did you attempt to check if she was okay? Were you not worried that her crazy husband, that you had no choice but to save Zach from, had killed her?’

‘Excellent question,’ Gaga said in approval.

Her mum’s face flushed and she looked over to Lily’s dad, her face softening with affection. ‘I wanted to. Of course, I did. But the thing was I fell in love with your dad.’ Her mum offered this as if it were an acceptable explanation.

This finally sparked a reaction from Lily’s dad. He looked up, as if he were awakening from a dream.

‘Was any of it true?’ he asked, his face ashen and grey.

‘Of course, Jason. The way I felt about you . . .’

Lily scoffed in response. ‘All those stories of a childhood spent fishing at Loch Lomond with your parents. The house in Glasnevin that used to be our grandparents’ before they moved to Glasgow.’

‘I made that all up,’ her mum admitted, tears now filling her eyes.

Lily’s head continued to throb as she tried to push aside the things her mother had shared.

Somewhere, hidden beneath the murky words, was another dark truth.

She could feel it.

Michael hovered close by, and Ben reached for Lily, saying, ‘Mama.’ He quietened at once when Lily took him in her arms.

‘All this time, we’ve been searching for my brother when he wasn’t ours to lose in the first place,’ Lily said, feeling nauseous at the thought.

‘I loved Robert like he was my son,’ her mother whispered. Then she moved to her ex-husband and took his hand in hers. ‘Our son.’

‘You should have told me,’ her dad replied, and then to Lily’s shock he placed an arm round her mum. ‘And while I’ll not condone what you did, taking Zach, I know you would have done it from a place of love.’

Lily felt anger prickle her forearms. How could her father still be excusing his wife? Why wasn’t he angry with her?

Then a terrifying thought struck Lily and she said, ‘When Robert went missing from our cabin, you must have at least suspected that Sally took her son back.’

Her mother’s face blanched even further. She ignored her daughter and turned to her husband again, looking for his reassurance. ‘I couldn’t say anything to Inspector Ortega because then he would have known about what I’d done. And I was so scared I’d lose you and Lily. You understand, don’t you?’

Her dad’s arm dropped from round her mum’s shoulders.

‘What if Inspector Ortega had arrested my son? Would you have spoken up then?’ Gaga asked, his voice like ice, slicing through the tension in the room.

‘Of course,’ her mum answered. ‘I told Ortega repeatedly that Jason was innocent.’

‘She did,’ Jason said. ‘And if Kimberly had known for sure that Sally had taken Robert she would have told me that. Wouldn’t you, love?’

Her mum nodded mutely.

However, none of this added up for Lily. Zach, too, seemed to be struggling to make sense of the pieces.

‘You are saying that you didn’t know that my mom took me from your cabin?’ Zach asked accusingly.

Lily watched her mother and Sally stare at each other. Lily’s mum was the first to break eye contact, when she finally answered Zach.

‘If I’m honest, I did suspect it for a little bit, but I didn’t know for sure. I mean, I hoped it was Sally that took you, rather than the other horrifying option, that you’d fallen overboard.’

‘Lies drip from your mouth so easily. How can you sleep at night?’ Sally said.

‘I don’t sleep,’ her mum replied sadly. ‘I lost so much forty years ago and I’m begging you not to take the crumbs of my life now.’