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CHAPTER ONE
Summer
‘COMEON, come on, come on...’
I drum my fingers against my knee, my eyes hooked on the blazing green digits that make up the minicab’s dashboard clock. I’m going to be late—so late. The traffic’s bumper to bumper and we’re going nowhere.
Is it always like this? It’s been years since I’ve visited Edinburgh—years since I’ve been in the UK, even. Everything is just so frantic.
I’m used to open spaces—mountains, beaches, bars—and to people who act like they have all the time in the world and the freedom to enjoy it.
Not here, though. Through the drizzle, people are dashing from one building to the next. Suited and booted. Grey and grouchy.
My eyes drift back to the ticking clock and I chew my lip.
I never should’ve helped the woman with the missing luggage, or the child with the vending machine that wouldn’t play ball, or paused to donate some loose change to the busker singing his heart out in the rain before airport security took him down.
But I did...and there’s no going back to rewrite history.
I sigh. It feels like the story of my life—only this time it pains me more than usual.
I should have been here a month ago. Not now, and at the request of a man I don’t know, on behalf of the only woman I have ever loved. My foster mother. Katherine.
Not that she loved me. Not enough to give me the chance to say goodbye.
My nails bite into my palms, their sting worse for the burn behind my eyes.
No, that’s not fair.
I know why she didn’t tell me.
But it doesn’t make it hurt any less.
Katherine was the closest thing to family I have ever known and now she’s gone.
It’s back to me...just me.
I shrug it off. I don’t do sad. It’s such a waste of life. We only get one, and we have to live it to the full, right? Cram in as much as possible, see the world, no time to pause...
At least that’s the way I see it...even if it’s making me late right now.
I lean forward and meet the cabby’s eye in the rear-view mirror.
‘How much longer?’
He gives a shrug. ‘Ten minutes. Twenty. They’re tearing up roads all over the city—it’s carnage.’
I thrust back into my seat, my knees bobbing. A horn sounds, another chimes in, and I can’t take it any more. Even with my luggage I can walk it faster than this. I look at the satnav, see where I need to be.
Rummaging through my satchel for my purse, I pull out some notes and shove them at him. ‘It’s enough, right?’ I gesture to the meter and he nods, twisting in his seat to eye my luggage sceptically.
‘But...’
‘It’s fine. I’ve got it.’
I shimmy along the seat and shove open the door. It’s a relief just to be out in the fresh air again, and for one brief second I raise my face to the rain and breathe in deep, give the hint of a smile as I feel free again. I’ve spent too long cooped up on planes and public transport, with the journey from Kuala Lumpur seeming to take for ever when it was twenty-four hours tops.
The desire to check in to a hotel and hit a shower is almost enough to see me doing just that. All it would take was a simple call to Mr McAllister to request that the meeting be put off until tomorrow...
