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‘Oh, that’s my mum’s name.’
Clarissa turned on her side to face her. ‘I thought your mum’s name was Anthea.’
‘That’s her middle name, the name she likes to be known by. Says she prefers it. Mum always gets cross when dad forgets and calls her Wendy.’
‘There isn’t any other reason she might not want to use her first name, is there?’
‘Like what?’
Clarissa stared at her. ‘Oh, ignore me, I haven’t got a clue.’
But Emily couldn’t ignore her. She was thinking about what her mum had said about a mistake she’d made. Had that mistake happened when she was Wendy?
‘I overheard what your mum said. It seemed like she was trying to confess something. She said she’d made a mistake. What do you think she meant by that?’
‘Maybe she was talking about the sleepovers I could never have when I was a child.’
Clarissa shook her head. ‘I get the feeling it wasn’t about that.’
Something occurred to Emily. ‘I think I know what it’s about.’
‘You do?’ whispered Clarissa.
‘It’s about my mum and her estrangement from her sister in America. Thank god I didn’t tell her what I thought about that too,’ said Emily. She’d always wanted her mum to mend bridges with her sister, but for some reason her mum said it just wasn’t possible.
‘I didn’t know you had an aunt in America.’
‘Yes, the black sheep of the family, apparently. She’s married to an American. I might have American cousins that I never see.’
‘Do you want to find your relatives in America?’ Clarissa asked.
‘I’ve thought about it a lot over the years, but I don’t know where to start.’
‘I do. Have you heard of AncestryDNA?’
‘Is it that website where you post your DNA and see if there’s a match?’
‘Do you want to do it? I don’t see what you’ve got to lose, apart from the joining fee, if nothing comes out of it. What do you think?’
‘I think it’s an excellent idea.’ Emily could feel her eyelids growing heavy. It didn’t help that she was staring at her best friend, who was looking drowsy too.
‘Good. Let’s do that tomorrow.’
‘Tomorrow?’
‘Yes – why not? You want to find them, don’t you?’
‘Yes, of course.’
‘So, let’s do it.’
‘Okay.’
‘Do you think we should close our eyes just for a moment?’
Emily nodded. ‘Just for a moment.’
Chapter 34
