Page 96 of The Stolen Child

‘The number is less than 1.00. You are not siblings.’

PART FOUR

And, after all, what is a lie?

’Tis but the truth in masquerade.

Lord Byron

NOW

August 2023

Lily

DNA Clinic, Docklands, Dublin

The air sucked out of her body, and Lily’s ears buzzed.

She’d misheard Ciara – that must be it. But the sound of a gasp from Zach on her left-hand side made her doubt herself.

‘We are not siblings?’ Lily asked.

Ciara shook her head. ‘No.’

‘We never thought we were full siblings. Half siblings,’ Zach said hurriedly, and Lily smiled at his words.

‘Yes, we have different fathers!’ Lily added.

Ciara looked down at her brown folder again and shook her head. ‘We have taken that into account,’ she said.

Lily looked at Zach in disbelief. He was Robert – she was sure of it. ‘Could there be a mistake?’

‘There has to be,’ Zach agreed. ‘I want you to double-check. Redo the test.’

‘And we can get my mum in to do a test too, and cross-check against us both,’ Lily added.

‘That would conclusively confirm if you were both her children,’ Ciara said. ‘But I do not want to waste your time or money. In my opinion, the chances of you being siblings are extremely slim.’

And so, with nothing else to be said, they got up and left the DNA clinic.

‘I was sure I was Robert,’ Zach whispered as he leaned against the brick wall.

‘Me too,’ Lily replied as her body shook with the news.

Lily had got so carried away with the idea of having her brother back that she’d been blind to the possibility that Zach was perhaps nothing more than a mixed-up man with an overactive imagination.

‘What now?’ Zach asked.

‘We go to my house as planned. Mum and Dad are there waiting for us, with Michael, Ben and Gaga,’ Lily replied in a low voice. ‘Although how we tell them this . . .’

Zach winced. ‘I can’t bear to break their hearts. I never wanted this. To be another one of the false leads you’ve all had to deal with. I would never have pursued this if I didn’t one hundred per cent believe it to be true.’

‘I know,’ Lily said.

‘I was so sure I was Robert,’ he repeated again, then glanced down at his phone, pressing the end button on another call. ‘It’s Mom again. At least my family at home will all be happy to get this update.’

‘Every cloud and all that . . .’ Lily replied as she fought back tears.