Page 82 of The Sunken Truth

“No, thank you.” She drifted to a table. “I hope you don’t mind me calling in.”

“Of course not. I told you it’d be good to see you here.”

“I was thinking about what you said the other day, about how it’s good to talk about Derek with someone who knew him.”

“Yes.” Lily pulled out a chair and indicated for Maria to do the same.

“It made me realise,” she said as she sat. “I’ve never had that. Whenever Derek and I were together, we were in our own little bubble. We didn’t meet each other’s friends or family.”

Her eyes trailed over the room again. “I never spoke to anyone about him who actually knew him. I once had a friend who was convinced he was a figment of my imagination.”She smiled affectionately. “Sometimes, when I hadn’t seen him for ages, I’d start to wonder the same.”

“That must have been so hard,” Lily mused.

“I was wondering if…” She paused and worried at her bottom lip. “Maybe you aren’t interested, but I have photos… I wondered if you might like to see them…”

“Of Uncle Derek?”

“Yes. Me and him.” She smiled shyly. “We’re pretty young.”

“I’d love to see them,” Lily said, then waited eagerly while Maria delved into her tote bag and retrieved a small photo album.

“I’m very old school,” she said, handing it over. “There weren’t digital photos back then.”

“It’s nice having them printed out.” Lily’s breath caught as she opened the book to be confronted by a photo of her uncle beaming into the camera while lazing on a beach. “He’s so young,” she whispered through the lump in her throat. Tears stung her eyes as she turned the page to more beach pictures and then one of the two of them standing in a busy street wearing matching straw hats.

“That was at a street festival in Madrid, just a few weeks after we first met.”

“He looks so different,” Lily murmured as she continued to turn the pages. Every now and then there was an obvious time jump – they’d age a few years and the location would change.

“Could I ask you something?” Maria said, pulling Lily’s attention from the photos.

She nodded lightly.

“I was wondering how he died.” Her lower lip quivered. “And when?”

“Oh.” Lily dropped the photo album to the table.

“It’s fine if you’d rather not talk about it…”

“It’s not that,” Lily said, while her heart drummed furiously. “I just sort of had the impression that you already knew… when we spoke the other day, I thought you must already know.”

She shook her head. “Glynis had told me you’d come looking for the ice cream shop after your uncle had died, but she didn’t say more than that.”

Lily felt a pang of disappointment. If Maria didn’t know the details of his death, then maybe she was being entirely honest with Lily now.

If she wasn’t hiding things – if she was sharing everything she knew – then maybe Lily would never get all her answers.

“He had a heart attack,” she finally said. “Almost a year ago.”

“I’m sorry,” Maria whispered. “That must have been a shock for you.”

“Yes.” Her throat thickened, strangling her words. “We argued before he died. I never got to apologise.”

Maria didn’t rush to offer platitudes and Lily was grateful for it.

“The last time I spoke to him, he told me how amazing you were and how proud he was of you.”

Lily smiled and wiped tears from under her eyes.