Joel slides his hand over mine, and I lean against him, keeping my eyes on Danny as he breathes rapidly, inches away from me, curling and uncurling his fingers. He won’t look at me, and my chest feels too tight, and I fight back tears.
“Edwin’s right,” Alex says suddenly, and even Danny looks at him, startled. I hold my breath. Is Alex about to defend me? Can I bear it if my stranger father has to protect me from the twin brother I have lost all claim to?
“None of this was Seraphine’s fault,” Alex says. “It was all Vera’s fault.”
Danny rocks in his seat, and it’s almost as if he’s nodding. Joel’s arm is warm against mine, and I close my eyes for a moment, thinking about the charges against Vera.
“Do you really think that?” I say, and I try to look directly at Alex, but it’s easier to let my gaze skip to each of the others. “I mean, really? Can you really believe Vera would have done those things?”
Edwin opens his hands in a pleading gesture. “Come on. We need to be on Gran’s side. Who’ll defend her if we won’t? What chance will she have? There are no witnesses—no one saw any of it.”
Next to me, Joel clears his throat. “Actually, that’s not quite true.”
Edwin stares at him. “What?”
“That no one saw any of it,” Joel says. “That day—we hid in the tower, do you remember? Your mum and your gran and my grandad—they were all shouting. Your gran told my grandad to go away, and he did, but we hid in the tower, you and me.”
Edwin frowns. “The robin.”
Joel’s voice is soft. “We locked ourselves in. They were shouting, screaming at each other, Ruth and Vera. We were scared. You stayed at the bottom, Edwin, but I went up to the top and I saw them.”
“‘The robin’s dead,’” Edwin says slowly. “That’s what Gran was shouting. And, ‘Theo’s dead.I can’t lose another one.’” He leans back on the chair. “Robin. Mum’s brother who died.”
Joel sighs. “I don’t remember that.”
“What then?” Edwin says. “What did you see from the top?”
“The thing is,” Joel says, “I don’t remember it. But last night, after Martin found out about Vera arguing with your dad, he dug out all the statements from when your mum died. And he came to see me because he found something that Grandad had said...”
“Go on,” Edwin says.
“When Grandad was putting me to bed that night—just a few hours after your mum died—I told him I saw—” Joel raises his palms. “Apparently, I told him I saw your gran push your mum over the edge.”
Edwin stares at him.
“I’m sorry,” Joel says.
Edwin makes an effort to relax his muscles, forcing his shoulders down.
“That’s what Martin meant by reviewing old evidence?” Edwin says eventually. “Hardly something that would stand up in court. The word of a four-year-old child, reported by a man known for telling tall stories.”
Joel doesn’t flinch. “I know.” He continues to look Edwin in the eye. “And maybe I was wrong. Maybe what I saw was your gran trying to catch your mum. The police evidently dismissed it at the time.”
Edwin tilts his head back, thinking. Next to me, Danny shakes his head.
Alex clears his throat. “You know, Vera always was the pack leader. She must have been so happy when Dominic told her the family had twins again. If Ruth told her, on the cliffs, that she’d only had one baby, that she’d done something terrible... Vera must have seen her dream of having new twins at Summerbourne about to be snatched away from her.”
Kiara stares at him as if she hardly knows him. “That doesn’t mean she pushed her.”
Alex has the grace to look uncomfortable. I study him surreptitiously. This man is my father; he loved my mother, and he fought with her—over me. I drop my gaze when I realize Kiara is watching me. When Alex speaks again, he focuses only on Joel, as if finally remembering who he is, or who he was all those years ago.
“Your grandfather,” Alex says. “Michael. He still lives here? What did he say about his old statement when Martin dug it out?”
Joel tenses. I twist my hand under his so I can hold on to him.
“He wasn’t lucid,” Joel says. “He has dementia. He rambled on about twins and witches’ cloaks and stolen babies.” He lifts his chin and looks at me rather than at Alex. “It made me think—Grandad’s obsession with the twin stories, and people falling over the cliff. I think that’s where my nightmares about Theo came from. I mixed up my memories of seeing your mother fall with Grandad’s stories, and started worrying that everything was my fault.”
I squeeze his hand, not knowing what to say. Perhaps if one good thing comes from all this, it will be that Joel can finally put the gruesome childhood tales about our family behind him.
