Chapter 62

‘I'm sorry, Sandra, but none of this is bullshit. It's all true,' Tina says gently.

‘Con-artists, the pair of you,' Zelda seethes. ‘Next, you'll be telling us that dad had an affair with you and this one here is your love-child.' I hate to admit it, but the thought did flicker through my mind.

‘Tina.' I swallow hard. ‘Did you trick me from the onset?' Her silence tells me that is exactly what she did. ‘Is your house even for sale?' Tina shakes her head, eyes downcast. Fucking hell. I was meaning to look up her house on Rightmove but was far too busy obsessing about Frank and Liam. ‘It was you crawling outside my sister's flat last week, wasn't it?' Tina and Daisy exchange glances. ‘And you saw me last night at the pub and ignored me. Why?' I demand furiously.

‘If you stop shouting and whinging, Bella, I'll explain.'

‘I'll tell you what I think, shall…' I begin.

‘Mummmm,' Georgia groans. ‘Let Tina speak.' The room falls silent.

‘I couldn't speak to you last night because my husband was with me and I'd get rumbled.' I don't believe it. She's not even separated. ‘Please don't look at me as if I'm something nasty you trod in. I couldn't betray Daisy.' Tina looks at Daisy. ‘My precious foundling.'

‘Oh, God,' Mum utters through her fingers, and in that moment, I feel as if the temperature has dropped to zero.

‘Foundling?' I manage, holding the base of my throat.

‘Daisy was left on the hospital steps in a cardboard box, wrapped in a blanket, in the middle of January.' We all gawp at Tina, wordless.

‘I was dumped,' Daisy says quietly, eyes scooting from me to Zelda, whose mouth is hanging open. Mum says nothing, but her whole being has deflated. She looks tiny in that chair, almost as if she'll disappear.

‘One of the nurses found her and brought her up to maternity. Nurse Daisy Manning. That's who she's named after. Only two days old, she was, poor little lamb,' Tina continues. Georgia gasps loudly, clamping a hand over her mouth and looks at me, eyes filling. ‘She was in care for several months, finally got adopted by a wealthy couple who were desperate for a daughter.'

‘A slave more like,' Daisy mutters, picking at a loose thread on her bandage.

‘They were a middle-class family,' Tina continues, ‘had two boys, wealthy but pure evil.'

‘Come on, Mum. Don't fall for their lies,' Zelda cuts in, not sounding at all convincing. ‘They're obviously a couple of fraudsters after money.' Mum says nothing – face frozen.

‘We took it in turns to feed and change her in maternity. Put the word out, hoping her biological parents would come forward, but no one came for her. Technology wasn't as advanced back then. We couldn't trace the patients. We checked the register, of course, but just hit a brick wall. Daisy's been looking for her birth relatives for some time now, haven't you, love? And as for fleecing the elderly, Zelda, Daisy's got enough money of her own.'

My guts spasm. Daisy told us she was homeless. I felt sorry for her. Was it all lies - the boyfriend who threw her out because she pawned his grandmother's ring – the brothers who refused to help her – sleeping rough in the car? It must've been. But why? To punish Dad for abandoning her through us?

‘God, they're a noisy lot next door,' Tina says, and the sound of a power tool snaps into my ears. ‘It would do my head in.' She squints at her gold watch. ‘I think it's considered noise pollution at this time on a Saturday.' But Mum says nothing. ‘Right. Well, anyway, at least Daisy's useless parents did one good deed.

Daisy nods. ‘They left me and my brothers a fair amount.' Zelda raises her eyebrows. Georgia gasps, clearly impressed by Daisy's wealthy status. ‘Owned half of Dublin.'

‘You deceived me,' I mutter through my fingers. ‘You deceived us all. Tom, Georgia, Zelda, even Linda was taken in.'

‘For what it's worth, I am sorry,' Daisy mumbles, as a power tool whines. I look at her, my expression depicting sorry isn't going to cut it. ‘I had no choice.'

‘Bullshit.' Zelda gets to her feet and starts banging on the wall, shouting at them to pipe down. ‘Everyone has choices, and you chose to lie to my sister for personal gain.'

‘No,' Daisy insists, getting to her feet, bandaged hand close to her chest. ‘It wasn't like that.' She wipes a tear from her left eye. ‘I swear. I was just looking for a way in. I wanted to tell you, Bella. I almost did a few times but…'

I rub my temple. ‘Why should I believe a word that comes out of your mouth?' What is real about Daisy Murphy? Everything she's told us so far is a lie. ‘Zelda's right, you are out to fleece us.' The words slip out of my mouth effortlessly, even though I'm not sure I believe them. Her eyes close and for a horrible moment she morphs into my dad, not so much now, but when he was younger, and I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that Daisy Murphy isn't out to fleece anyone. Everything Tina Anderson has said is true.

Mum's on her feet now, arms stretched out like a mediator, chest rising and falling rapidly. ‘Let's all just calm down, shall we, and discuss this like adults.' I square up to Daisy, heart belting. The tension in the air seeps through my pores, sinking into my bones.

‘Bella, I won't tell you again,' Mum says, and Daisy and I slip back into our seats like begrudged teenagers, giving each other looks. ‘How did you find us, Daisy?'

Poised on the edge of her seat, Daisy sniffs, wipes her tear-stained cheeks with the heel of her hand, and then, ‘After Dad died, I found an old biscuit tin in the basement. Inside was a newspaper cutting of my story and other bits of keepsakes. I didn't do anything with it for ages. I was shocked, in denial. Once I'd processed it all, I got in touch with the hospital where I was abandoned. The nurses and staff had all retired, moved. But Tina's details were still on the system.'

‘Good job I left a forwarding address when I moved to London, eh? We spoke regularly on the phone after that, became friends.' Tina throws Daisy an adoring glance. ‘She's like family now.'

‘Like a niece,' I say dryly.

Tina looks at me gravely. ‘Anyway, I invited her to London and said I'd help her find her family.'

‘Tina suggested trying a DNA database. I figured I had nothing to lose by giving it a go. I went through the process, thinking it'll lead to nothing, and then bingo. A match. A father.' Sweet Jesus. Mum yelps like a wounded animal, eyes full of hurt, betrayal. I will never forgive Dad for this.

‘Mum, have you still got my spare inhaler.' I can't breathe. ‘Mum!' Mum waves a crumpled tissue at the sideboard irritably, and I remember it's in the top drawer.

‘Grandpa,' Georgia exclaims, as if Dad is sitting in front of her. Clearly impressed with Dad's philandering instead of being mortified by his unforgiveable betrayal. ‘You old rascal.'

‘I think you should sit down, Sandra,' Daisy says, but Mum just stands there, defiant.

‘Come on, Mum,' Zelda groans as I shake my inhaler ferociously. ‘Daddy would never have done anything like that to you. Don't fall for her sob story,' she says, her conviction waning by the second.

‘She's right,' I agree hastily, wanting it to be true more than believing it.

‘I'm sure your father was a decent man and a good parent,' Daisy replies as I wrap my lips around the mouthpiece of my asthma pump. ‘Pity your mother couldn't keep her knickers on.'