Page 50

NOW

August 2023

Kimberly

Phibsborough, Dublin

And that’s when the chaos truly began. Lily and Jason shouted at Sally to explain what she meant. Michael held Ben in his arms, but hovered by Lily’s side, ready to protect her if she needed it. But it was Zach that Kimberly’s gaze remained fixed on.

He looked stricken, his eyes flicking between Sally’s and Kimberly’s, back and forth, and her heart splintered into a thousand pieces again. Because she’d caused all this pain and she wasn’t even sure how it had happened.

Tears began to fall, thick and fast like a river down Kimberly’s cheeks. She’d never felt old before, but in this moment she was every part of her sixty-nine years.

‘What does she mean, Mum?’ Lily asked.

‘I was trying to help – that’s all,’ Kimberly replied, her eyes downcast.

Jason slumped on to a chair, and he too looked as tired as Kimberly felt. Lily sat down beside him, and they held hands. She had always been a daddy’s girl – thank goodness for that – because once Kimberly shared her story they would need each other.

Sally walked towards Kimberly. ‘It’s time to tell your family the truth. Who you are. You can’t keep this hidden any longer, Elsie .’

Kimberly had heard people report about their lives flashing before their eyes, in a near-death experience, but it wasn’t death that her moment of reckoning came – it was now.

Safe and loved with her family, before her world ended and turned dark at only six years old. Light returning when little Sally arrived at the orphanage, only to extinguish again when Elsie’s tentative steps as an adult left her broken and alone. But, miraculously, she and Sally found each other again, and her friend shone a bright light over both of them.

Until Elsie sent them both into the darkness, once and for all.

Kimberly felt Jason’s hands on her shoulders, shaking her as he demanded, ‘Who is Elsie?’

‘I’m sorry,’ Kimberly whispered, her heart racing, because she knew that, after all this time, she had no choice but to tell her family the truth. And she knew what that would cost her.

‘My real name is Elsie Evans. I became Kimberly Blair in 1981.’

‘I don’t understand.’ Jason’s voice was filled with disbelief.

‘Me either, Dad,’ Lily replied tremulously.

Kimberly felt her gut twist again, and acid burned its way to her mouth, knowing that she was about to break both their hearts.

‘I’ve known your mother for sixty years. We met in the Sunshine House Orphanage in London,’ Sally said.

‘But Mum had a family. In Glasgow. I don’t understand,’ Lily said, her voice uncertain. ‘Are you sure you mean my mum?’

Sally nodded and replied in a trembling voice, ‘I’m sure. Best friends forever we always said.’

‘I still have the card. And the mood ring,’ Kimberly whispered.

Sally scoffed, then continued, ‘I would have done anything for you, Elsie.’

‘And I for you, Sally. What I did, I did for you !’ Kimberly’s voice cracked with emotion as she cried out, her words a desperate plea.

‘Don’t you dare pretend this was for anyone but you!’ Sally responded, two dots of pink appearing on her cheeks.

‘Oh, Mom,’ Zach said, his voice filled with anguish.

Kimberly turned to him.

But it wasn’t Kimberly that Zach was calling out to.

It was Sally.

How had Kimberly got so much wrong? She’d been hiding from the truth for so long, but deep down she always knew that one day it would catch up with her. And the only way to make Zach and her family understand what had happened on the Carousel was to go back to the summer of 1981, in London.