‘Why didn’t you tell me?’
‘It never came up. Frankly, I thought it didn’t matter. You had what I wanted for you, which was a good education, opportunities.’
‘Whatyouwanted? What about what I wanted?’ said Lili through gritted teeth. ‘A home, a family.’
‘I couldn’t adopt you, Lili, because of my job. I was your—’
‘—Social worker, yeah, you told me that already.’ Lili eyed her suspiciously. There was still something Connie wasn’t telling her – she was sure of it.
‘I thought that with an excellent education, you’d move on with your life, have a career, get married, have a family of your own. And your past, well, was your past. Didn’t I say to you, only ever look back to see how far you’ve come? You always liked that advice.’
Lili shook her head from side to side. ‘You should have told me you knew my mother.’
Connie sighed heavily. ‘I tried to find them, as did the police, but it was impossible …’
‘What about grandparents, aunts, uncles? Didn’t the authorities post my picture somewhere?’ Lili suddenly realised that there had been no social media twenty-four years ago. But wouldn’t she have been on the news, in a newspaper, on a milk carton?
Connie guessed what she was thinking. ‘It was no use. Nobody came forward.’
They both fell silent, the heavy silence interrupted by Lili’s phone. It was Ray. Lili stood up and answered the call as she walked towards the door. She knew she couldn’t stay on at Connie’s. Not now.
‘Hello, Ray.’
‘Are you okay?’
Lili glanced back into the room before she stepped into the hall, out of earshot. ‘You were right about Connie.’ She didn’t go into the ins and outs of when and how much Connie had contributed to her private school fees.
‘Did she tell you her reasons?’
Lili started walking up the stairs. ‘Yes, she knew my mother. Not very well, by the sounds of it. They didn’t know each other long.’ Lili stepped into the bedroom and glanced at her suitcase, relieved she hadn’t bothered unpacking the previous night. ‘Before you ask, no, she didn’t know my mother’s name.’
Lili sighed when Ray asked the reason. ‘It’s a long story.’ She didn’t want to go into all that business of using fake names and pretending to be hippy types. It was stupid, and it had cost her any lead she might have regarding who her parents were and where her extended relatives might be.
The fact was that she had got excited over nothing. Finding out who her secret benefactor was hadn’t led to her family, as she hoped; all it had pointed to was a dead end. ‘Look, I have to go.’ Lili picked up her coat.
‘Wait!’
She stopped. ‘What is it, Ray?’
‘You said Connie met your mother.’
‘That’s right, but as I said before, it’s a dead end. She didn’t know her proper name.’
‘But if she’d met her, presumably she’d recognise her if she saw a photo?’
Lili shrugged. ‘I guess. But where would you get a photo?’
‘Do you remember the young couple who perished in a motorcycle accident on the island of Zakynthos?’
Lili rolled her eyes. Not that again. Didn’t Ray get it? It was a simple case of abandonment. They hadn’t wanted her anymore. It made sense now. They were free spirits, second-generation hippies travelling, having beach parties, not wanting responsibilities, not wanting her.
‘I have a photo of them – the couple who died. I can’t take the credit. It was a mate still on the force who found a small, archived obituary from a British newspaper about the couple who died on Zakynthos. It appears that the photo the local police released to journalists was a polaroid someone had taken of them on a beach before they died. The local police had found it amongst the debris of the crash. I’m sending it to your phone now.’
Lili rolled her eyes again, thinking,if you must. ‘Okay.’ Lili heard her phone ping as she finished putting on her coat.
‘There, I’ve sent it.’
‘Fine.’ Lili picked up her suitcase and Maisie’s Trunki.