‘He just said that he was sad that we weren’t his little girls anymore. That all he’d ever wanted was for us to be happy.’
‘It was probably his guilty conscience,’ says Lauren, but Kate shakes her head.
‘Come on, had you ever seen him cry before?’
‘No.’
‘They were proper tears, Lauren. He was a broken man.’
‘Well, it wasn’t my fault that he couldn’t live with his decision.’
‘I don’t think it was his decision,’ says Kate, looking at Lauren. ‘I think Mum was telling him that he had to put a stop to it.’
Lauren shakes her head. ‘I think it’s more likely she had found out about his affair. It was all happening around that time.’
Kate takes a sip from her glass of water, wishing that it was a magic potion that would return her family to how it used to be. Somehow, it was easier to get along when all of their secrets were still hidden.
‘Had you told her you’d seen him with another woman by then?’ she asks.
Lauren thinks before answering. ‘No, that was after the summer holidays when I was in sixth form.’
‘Why would you do that?’ asks Kate, unable to keep the accusatory tone from her voice. ‘When you had no idea what was really going on?’
‘Because he’d just played the hand of God,’ cries Lauren. ‘How was it fair that he’d taken my baby away from me, then had a baby of his own behind our backs? How come he got to play happy families, when he’d left a trail of destruction behind him?’
‘What did Mum say when you told her?’
‘She fobbed me off and told me that it wasn’t what it seemed,’ says Lauren. ‘That she knew the woman.’
‘Well there you go then,’ says Kate, breathing out her relief. ‘How much more proof do you need, to know that Dad wouldn’t cheat? On Mum or us.’
‘Jess is proven to be our half sister by her DNA,’ says Lauren sympathetically.
‘I’m running my own DNA test,’ says Kate.
Lauren looks at her quizzically. ‘What for?’
‘Just to be sure,’ says Kate. ‘I’m waiting for the results as we speak.’
‘Well, if you’ve sent off Dad’s DNA, hoping that it’s not going to be a match to Jess, then I’m afraid you’re going to be bitterly disappointed.’
Kate looks Lauren in the eyes. ‘It’s not Dad’s I’m testing, it’s Mum’s.’
‘Have you gone completely mad?’ gasps Lauren. ‘You can’t honestly think that’s a possibility?’
‘I’ve thought it was a possibility from the minute Jess turned up,’ says Kate, unapologetically. ‘That’s why I got so mad when you were insisting she was Dad’s, aside from the simple fact that I didn’t want her to be. You may have seen stuff, but I saw stuff too.’
‘Yes,’ says Kate forthrightly. ‘I just don’t know what.’
40
Kate
‘Kate, what’s going on?’ asks Matt, when she eventually gets home. ‘Even a Hollywood drugs bust wouldn’t have kept you at the office for this long.’ He turns down the volume on the TV and sits forward on the couch, holding a bottle of beer.
‘I’ve been with Lauren and Jess,’ she says.
Matt puts the beer down on the table and looks at her earnestly.
‘And how did that go?’
‘She wants to find her mother.’
‘I know,’ says Matt. ‘She wrote the feature I told you about.’
‘I knew it,’ says Kate. ‘As soon as you told me she had a lead on a DNA piece, I knew it was going to be her own story.’
‘Well, you had more information at your disposal than I did. I’ve only just been made aware this afternoon that it’s her own story she pitched.’
Kate’s sure her heart’s stopped beating. ‘You can’t run it!’
Matt gets up and goes towards her. ‘I realize that. It was scheduled for tomorrow, but I’ve pulled it. I noticed your scoop didn’t run today, either.’ He raises his eyebrows knowingly, but then smiles gently and takes Kate’s hands in his.
She gives an apologetic shrug. ‘I’m sorry . . .’
‘It’s okay,’ he says, pulling her into him and kissing the top of her head. ‘I understand why you did it, but I wish you’d told me the truth.’ He attempts to laugh. ‘We could have sent the entire nation out looking for Jess’s mother.’
Kate coughs as a strangled snigger catches in her throat ‘We already know who Jess’s mother is.’
Matt cocks his head back in astonishment. ‘We do?’
‘Yep,’ she says, as her phone rings in her pocket.
She sees that it’s Nancy from DS Labs and holds her hand