Page 100 of The Clifftop Cottage

“And she left us,” Leah said quietly. The quiet was worse than shouting. “She left me. While I watched Dad die.”

Erica opened her mouth, then closed it.

The words hung there.

“I’m going to her,” Erica said after a beat, stubborn and shaking. “I’ll go tomorrow.”

Leah let out a disbelieving breath. “You’re going to hop on a plane to Nepal? Trek into the mountains with a photograph and a name?”

“Why not?” Erica demanded. “I can’t stay here. Not now. Not with this shadow over everything.”

Leah heard it then, that word. Shadow.

Not just Mum.

Everything.

“She doesn’t want to be found,” Leah said again, more tired than angry. “That’s what you don’t get.”

Erica’s jaw tightened. “Maybe she just doesn’t know what she’s missed. If I show her – if she sees us – maybe she’ll realise.”

Leah stepped closer. Lowered her voice. “Or maybe you’ll be hurt all over again. Are you really ready for that?”

Erica’s eyes flashed. “What are you trying to say?”

Leah hesitated. She hadn’t meant to say this. But something had been building for years.

“I’m saying,” she began slowly, “that maybe you’re looking for an excuse to run.”

The word landed.

Erica went very still.

“You’re here now,” Leah continued, her voice unsteady but determined. “You moved back. And I thought – I hoped – that meant something. I thought maybe we’d finally stop orbiting each other and actually be a family again.” Her throat tightened. “But you’re still half gone. Even when you’re standing right in front of me.”

“That’s not fair,” Erica said, but it lacked heat.

“You let me down,” Leah said, and now her voice did shake. “You let Maisie down.”

Erica blinked as if struck. “I’m sorry I did,” she said quickly. “It won’t happen again.”

Leah let out a breath that was almost a laugh. “Until the next thing pulls you under,” she said. “This time it’s ghosts. Next time it’ll be something else. Some new obsession.”

“It’s not an obsession,” Erica snapped. “It’s history.”

“It’s escape.”

“Don’t put this all on me.”

“I’m not,” Leah shot back. “I know what she did to us. I know what that did to you. But you don’t get to disappear because she did.”

“I don’t disappear.”

“You do.” Leah’s voice broke. “You always do.”

Silence.

“I stood by you,” Leah went on, more quietly now. “When Steven left.”