Page 91 of The Missing Sister

Ally took her sister in her arms as she sobbed with all the grief of the past fifteen years.

‘And to top it all, the father of my child is Zed Eszu! He’s an evil man, Ally. We know that he’s pursued Tiggy and Electra too. Why was he doing it? It cannot simply be random that he’s been obsessed with us sisters. He doesn’t leave our family alone!’

‘No, I’ve thought about that too,’ agreed Ally.

‘I am the only one who has borne his child, and at least he will never know.’

‘You don’t want him to?’

‘Never! I know nothing about his business dealings, but I do know him as a human being. He gets what he wants and then moves on. He’s without any kind of scruples. Or guilt,’ Maia added as Ally produced a tissue from her jean pocket and handed it to her sister.

‘Well, the lack of guilt or empathy is an indication of being a psychopath. Maybe that’s what he is.’

‘I don’t know,’ said Maia, blowing her nose. ‘But his fascination for me in Paris, and then two of our sisters more recently, is definitely not a coincidence.’

‘What makes it even stranger is that his father’s boat was next to Pa’s when I radioed theTitanto try to rendezvous with it last June. TheOlympuswas on the radar. Anyway, Maia, enough of all that. I just wish that you could be happier about your wonderful news.’

‘Were you when you were pregnant?’

‘Yes and no. I was conflicted, just like you are. Maybe most women are to some degree initially, even if their circumstances are less complex than yours or mine.’

‘But you went ahead and kept your baby, even though you had lost your beloved Theo. My circumstances all those years ago weren’t all that different.’

‘Maia, please, I wasn’t nineteen and just starting out on my life and career like you were. I was a thirty-year-old woman who knew that she loved the baby’s father desperately, and that the baby was a gift, a chance to have a part of Theo always with me. They were completely different circumstances.’

‘Thank you for trying to make me feel better about giving my baby away, but nothing can, Ally, nothing.’

‘Maybe not, but equally, you can’t let guilt over the past affect your present and future, Maia. This baby is the start of a whole new life for you, Floriano and Valentina. It would be very sad if you weren’t able to embrace it, for them, as well as yourself.’

Maia was silent for a while, then she looked at Ally, her beautiful dark eyes still wet with tears, and nodded. ‘You’re right. I must embrace it for them. Thank you, Ally.’

‘You know,’ Ally mused, ‘even though we lost Pa last year, it feels like at least we’ve found each other again. All those years when you never really talked to me. I missed my big sister, I really did.’

‘Please forgive me for that. I was so ashamed... I hated myself for so long. But you’re right. I must move on.’

‘Yes, you must. Just one last question: would you ever think about finding your son?’

‘Even though every millimetre of me yearns to know him, to hold him in my arms and tell him I love him, and there hasn’t been a day that has gone past since I gave him away that I haven’t thought about him, or wondered where he is and how he’s doing... I can’t. It would be forme, not him. I don’t even know if his parents have told him that he’s adopted. Walking back into his life now could completely disrupt it. He’s at such a vulnerable age – fifteen; no longer a baby or even a child. He’s almost an adult. And then there are his parents: they’ve – or at least I hope they have – loved him like he was their own since he was a day old. How would they feel if the birth mother suddenly walked in?’

‘I can’t imagine, but I understand what you’re saying.’

‘Perhaps I’ll see him one day in the future. If he wants to get in contact with me. I’m sure he could if he tried,’ Maia sighed.

‘Talking of that, I’m still convinced that’s the problem for Merry: she obviously doesn’t want to risk another family stealing her beloved daughter away.’

‘I agree, but surely it’s Mary-Kate’s choice whether she wants to meet her birth family – or whatever we are to her? Like it would be my son’s?’ Maia pointed out.

‘As CeCe told us, it’s never occurred to Mary-Kate to search for her birth parents before. She was perfectly content not knowing about the past.’

‘Then is it our place to interfere? She should talk to her mother about it first.’

‘From the calls we’ve had with her, she now seems eager to know. Oh dear,’ Ally sighed. ‘I mean, from what Star has told us, that emerald ring suggests she is who we’re looking for, but given she’s in New Zealand and her mum’s in London with no definite date to return home, it doesn’t look like she’ll be joining us on the cruise.’

‘I’ll say it for the thousandth time: I so wish Pa were here to tell us what to do,’ said Maia.

‘Well, he’s not, and actually, before we go back to Mary-Kate and tell her that the ring is identical, I think Orlando is right: you should go down to Provence to meet Jack.’

‘Ally’ – Maia looked at her – ‘I’m sorry, but I feel too unwell to make such a journey. I’m sick all the time, and I just can’t face the drive.’