Page 171 of Pull Me Under

‘Every girlfriend,’ he manages. ‘Every time someone got close, I’d think, why would they stay? My own mother didn’t stay.’ He drags in a breath. ‘And she did. She tried to stay. She tried to come back. And he⁠—’

He looks toward the window. Toward the village. Toward the cottage where our father is sleeping, unaware that his sons have just discovered the full weight of what he stole from them.

‘I built my whole life around being someone people leave,’ Kit says. ‘And it was a lie.’

My throat closes. All those years. Every birthday wishing she’d remember, wishing she’d care. And she did. She did care. Dad just made sure we’d never know.

We flick through the letters, until we find an envelope, still tacky with dust. This one is newer, not so faded. The Queen on the stamp is older. I unfold it, scanning the date.

I’m pretty sure Kit stops breathing.

I grab the torch, angle it closer, certain I’ve misread.

‘Brothers,’ Kit says. His voice is wrecked. ‘She knows about us. She’s been asking about us.’

We sit in the dark, in Brynn’s cottage, surrounded by the wreckage of everything we thought we knew.

A sister.

We have a sister?

Lily. She was thirteen when Mum wrote this – she’d be nineteen now, maybe twenty. Growing up in Bristol, wondering why her brothers never came.

‘The address,’ I say. ‘She said it’s at the bottom.’

Kit turns the letter over. A Bristol address, written in careful letters.

‘Didn’t Tom say Brynn had gone to Bristol for family stuff? Do you think Brynn has gone to find her?’ Kit asks. He sounds dazed, and I get it, because my head is thudding like I’ve been hit by a freight train. ‘She wasn’t running away from you, brother – she might be finding our family.’

‘We have to go,’ I say.

‘What about Dad?’

‘What about him?’ The anger doesn’t surprise me – sharp and hot, rising up like the tide. ‘He lied to us for twenty years. He burned her letters. He kept us from our mother, from our sister, from⁠—’

‘I know.’ Kit’s voice is quiet. ‘But he’s still sick. We can’t just leave him.’

‘Tom.’ The name comes out before I think it through. ‘Tom can check on him.’

‘Tom who’s a vet?’

‘He’s practically a doctor.’

Kit stares at me. ‘He treats sheep, Jude.’

‘Same basic concept. Stubborn, prone to wandering off, doesn’t listen to instructions.’ I’m already standing, already moving. ‘I’ll call him. He owes me a favour anyway.’

‘What favour?’

‘Doesn’t matter. Get Maisie. We’re going to Bristol.’

Tom answers on the third ring.

‘Jude? How are you? I was going to call in a bit, check in. Is Reuben home yet?’

‘I need you to check on Dad.’ I don’t mean to sound like an uptight bastard, but now I know where Brynn is, where my mum is, my sister … I just want to teleport there and get all this resolved.

A pause. ‘Your dad? Why, what’s wrong?’