Page 40 of The Hidden Daughter (The Lost Daughters #7)

Charlotte stood then, knowing she needed to notify someone, and no longer wanting to sit in the room now that Amalie had gone.

But she would forever be grateful for the time they’d spent together, and now she had to try to find the same strength in her own life.

To move forward on her own, to not keep yearning for the past, but to enjoy every step into the future instead.

She bent low and whispered a final kiss to Amalie’s cheek, grateful for the small miracle that she hadn’t been alone when she’d passed. Once she’d found a nurse, Charlotte went to her car and sat a moment, letting herself cry before taking a deep breath and calling her grandmother.

‘Charlotte?’

‘Amalie’s gone,’ she said, through her tears. ‘I was sitting with her and she just… she just slipped away.’ Someone else has left me. Someone else I loved has gone.

‘Where are you?’

Charlotte blew out another breath. ‘In the car park outside.’

‘Then come home, dear girl.’ Her grandmother’s voice caught then, her next words unable to hide the tremble of emotion. ‘Come home so that we can open my best bottle of wine and remember the wonderful woman my mother was.’

‘Grandma, she told me something today, something I want to tell you now before I forget it,’ Charlotte said, her voice still shaky.

‘She looked away and stared out of the window as if she was looking for you, and she wanted me to tell you that she was sorry. She said that they thought keeping it a secret would give you the life she deserved, and that Alexander was your father. She said he became the most wonderful father she could ever have imagined you to have, and she wanted you to remember that.’

Charlotte closed her eyes and remembered the way Amalie had held her hand, only a few hours before; of the way she’d turned and looked to her, as if to implore Charlotte not to forget her words.

She would tell her grandmother about the letter when she got home, because it only reinforced what Amalie had said.

In that moment, it had never been clearer to Charlotte that Amalie had loved both men, very much. One for only a handful of months; the other, for a lifetime.

‘Charlotte, I want you to come home. This isn’t a time to be alone.’

She found herself nodding and doing as she’d been told, deciding to tell her grandmother that she’d been to see Amalie earlier in the day, too—that she’d only come back to ask her one final question.

And now at last she knew the rest of Amalie’s story—she supposed it was hers to share now that she was gone, to make sure everyone knew the love story of Alexander and Amalie.

When Charlotte arrived back at her grandmother’s house, she sat outside for a few minutes to gather her thoughts before going in.

It had been a long day full of emotions, and even after crying so many times and feeling as if she was completely out of tears, she still found herself on the verge of welling up again as she let herself into the house.

‘Is that you, Lotte?’

‘Just me,’ she called back to her grandmother.

She found her in the kitchen making hot chocolate, and when she turned, Charlotte could see that her eyes were red-rimmed. Charlotte immediately went to her, folding her into her arms and holding her tight.

‘I can’t believe she’s gone,’ her grandmother whispered.

Charlotte eventually let go of her and they sat down together at the table, hot chocolates in hand as they blew on them and took tentative sips.

‘I’m going to miss her so much,’ her grandmother said. ‘I’m just so grateful you were with her when she passed, that she wasn’t alone. If I’d known, if there had been any warning she was so close to the end…’

Charlotte nodded, taking a deep breath. ‘It happened so quietly, so quickly.’ She cleared her throat.

‘I was reading a letter when she passed, one that I think was written decades ago. I don’t think she could ever bring herself to give it to you.

’ She took it from her pocket and placed it on the table between them.

‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘For everything. For being here while she told her story, for coming home, for—’

‘Grandma, you have nothing to thank me for. I’m just so happy that I was able to spend time with her, and with you, too.’

‘Why do I feel there’s a but?’ she asked. ‘Has something else happened?’ The way her grandmother looked at her, the way she patiently waited, made it even harder for Charlotte to tell her.

‘Harrison left today.’

Her grandmother’s face fell, as if she could acutely feel Charlotte’s pain. ‘He left Oslo?’

Charlotte only just got the words out before she burst into tears. ‘He left Oslo and he, well, he left me. But now isn’t the time, after what happened tonight—’

‘Oh, sweetheart, I’m so sorry.’

‘No, it’s fine,’ Charlotte said, quickly wiping away her tears. ‘You’ve just lost your mother, I barely even knew Harrison for more than a few weeks. It’s nothing, I shouldn’t have even told you.’

‘Amalie would have understood your broken heart more than anyone else,’ her grandmother said.

‘It’s why I was there,’ Charlotte whispered. ‘I just needed to tell her that I understood how she could have been so deeply in love with her Oskar after such a short time, because it’s exactly how I felt about Harrison.’

She stood up and took the chair beside her grandmother so they could put their arms around each other, needing to hold her close.

‘I know it’s stupid, but I had this feeling that he was the one.’

Her grandmother smoothed her hair, stroking it gently back over and over again. ‘Perhaps he still is.’

‘No,’ Charlotte said, reaching for her hot chocolate and realising that her hand was shaking. ‘If you could have seen the look on his face, the way he told me he was leaving…’

‘All I’m saying is that sometimes people change, circumstances change,’ she said. ‘If he’s half the man you said he was, then maybe this isn’t the end.’

Charlotte wished she shared her grandmother’s optimism, but every time she thought of Harrison, she knew in her heart that she was never, ever going to see him again. Not after the way he’d left.

‘What do you say we curl up and watch a movie?’ her grandmother asked.

‘Tomorrow is going to bring decisions about things I don’t even want to think about, but tonight?

Tonight we can enjoy spending time together, just the two of us, and pretend that all is still right in the world. What do you say?’

Charlotte didn’t even have to force her smile this time. ‘I say that’s the best idea I’ve heard all day.’

Her eyes were sandpaper dry and red, her heart hurt and her body was exhausted; but there was nowhere else she’d rather be than curled up on the sofa with her grandmother.

He might have broken your heart today, but tomorrow is another day. You’re too strong to let a boy break you. You’re going to survive this just like you always do, she thought, giving herself a little pep talk.

‘I’ll bring the hot chocolates, you get the blanket from the hall cupboard,’ her grandmother said, her eyes still full of her own tears.

And just like that, Charlotte was a little girl again, being comforted by her grandmother, who’d been the one grown-up in her life who’d never, ever let her down when she needed her the most.