The Sun Sister (The Seven Sisters #6) - Lucinda Riley Page 0,42

failed you – you never did give me a proper answer as to why you hated boarding school. If you had trusted me, maybe I could have helped you, but I also know how proud you are.

Sadly now, I must leave you to discover for yourself who you are and the incredible person you could become. However, I will not leave you without offering you assistance. As you will know, all your sisters have been given a letter, and in each one I have provided them with enough clues to find the path back to their birth parents if they wish to find them. With you, all I can give is the name and contact number of your grandmother, who lives not so very far from where you do. She is one of the most inspiring women I have ever had the privilege to meet, and I only wish I had known her for longer. This information I enclose separately, with a photograph. The resemblance is unquestionable, and I feel confident that she will be there to help you when I cannot.

My darling Electra, I beg you to know you are, and will always be, deeply loved by your father.

Pa Salt x

I took another slug of vodka as I sat staring blankly at the letter. Maybe my brain wasn’t clear enough to take in what Pa had said, or maybe I just didn’t want to. I sighed, then pulled out something else from the envelope. It was a photo, and it was black and white and . . .

‘Oh my God! Oh jeez . . .’

I studied it again, but I already knew it was the same photograph as the one I’d seen a few weeks back, sent by a woman saying she was my grandmother.

I looked closer and yes, the female in the photo looked very like me – or maybe I looked very like her. I remembered Mariam saying she’d put the letter from my ‘grandmother’ in the safe, so I went to get it. Tentatively, I extracted the contents and laid the photograph the woman had sent me next to the one from Pa’s envelope. They were identical.

I turned over the photo from Pa and saw there was an address written on the back, along with a cell phone number. Then I looked at the creased letter that Mariam had insisted on un-scrunching and read the address at the top.

Again, they were identical. I then read the letter (written on obviously expensive paper) and in the same beautifully scripted hand that had addressed the envelope.

Apartment 1

28 Sidney Place

Brooklyn 11201

My dear Miss D’Aplièse – or may I call you Electra?

My name is Stella Jackson and I am your biological grandmother. I am sure you receive many letters, and I would also guess that a portion of them are begging letters. Let me reassure you that this is not such a thing. I simply decided that it was time to introduce myself.

I know you are a busy woman, but I feel it would be beneficial for you and I to meet. Your adoptive father described me as a ‘living clue’. I am not sure I appreciate the description, but for now, I enclose a photograph of myself and your mother. I can be contacted at the above address and my cell phone is on day and night.

I look forward to hearing from you.

With kind regards,

Stella Jackson

Whoever ‘Stella’ was, she had certainly been educated. I wouldn’t know where to begin with writing such a letter; it felt (uncomfortably) like she was trying to set up a meeting to discuss the renovation of the common parts of a condominium building with a neighbour she’d never met. Rather than introducing herself to her long-lost granddaughter, if that’s what I actually was . . .

But even for me, the mistress of cynicism, it seemed impossible that this woman was not who she said she was.

‘Oh my God! I have a blood relative!’ I announced to the room as I stood up and wandered round it. ‘So, Electra,’ I said, imitating Theresa’s nasal intonations as I had her begin an imaginary conversation with me, ‘how do you feel about discovering you have a blood relative alive and living close by?’

‘Well now, Theresa, I don’t know yet. I haven’t met her.’

‘And are you planning to?’

‘I haven’t decided yet.’

‘Well, it’s a pretty big deal, so take as much time as you need. And if you want to meet her, then you must prepare yourself well.’

‘What do