Chapter 6: The Man in Bristol
I sat in my car outside my mother's house for twenty minutes before I could drive.
Anna had texted once: *Are you all right?
I'm still in the city if you need anything.*
I read it three times.
Then I typed back: *Can we meet tomorrow?*
She replied immediately: *Yes.
Anywhere you want.*
I drove home.
Charles's car was in the driveway.
Every light in the house was on.
I sat in the car park down the road instead.
I took out the paper Anna had given me.
*Paul Ellison.
Bristol.*
I had not thought about Paul in years.
That was the honest truth.
After the grief of losing Mara had settled into something I could carry, I had eventually stopped thinking about the months before she was born.
The relationship had been real but we had both been young and I had told myself, for decades, that it had simply ended the way young relationships end.
Now I understood it had not ended.
It had been ended.
By Charles.
On my behalf.
Without my knowledge.
I looked up the name.
There was a Paul Ellison in Bristol with a small carpentry business.
A website with a phone number.
A photograph of a man in his late fifties, grey at the temples, standing in a workshop surrounded by half-finished chairs.
He had a kind face.
I didn't know what I had expected.
I called the number before I could think better of it.
It rang four times.
"Ellison Joinery."
"Is this Paul Ellison?"
A pause.
"Speaking."
"My name is Evelyn.
My maiden name was Marsh.
We knew each other in 1993 and 1994."
The silence on the other end lasted a long time.
"Evelyn." His voice changed completely on the word.
Quieter.
Careful.
"I've thought about you.
More than you'd probably believe."
"I need to ask you something.
When we stopped contact — what were you told?"
Another pause.
"I was told you'd lost the baby.
And that you didn't want to hear from me again.
A man called me.
Said he was a family friend.
Said you'd asked him to pass the message."
"His name was Charles."
"He didn't give a name."
"He's been my husband for twenty-eight years."
The silence this time was different.
"Evelyn," Paul said slowly.
"What's happened?"
"The baby didn't d*e," I said.
"She was adopted without my knowledge or consent.
She grew up, had a daughter of her own, and that daughter found me yesterday."
I heard him exhale.
A long, unsteady breath.
"She p@ssed," I said.
"Mara.
A few years ago.
But her daughter is here.
Her name is Anna."
"Mara," he said.
Just the name.
Like he was testing the weight of it.
"She had your eyes," I said.
"In the photograph."
He didn't speak for a moment.
"I want to meet Anna," he said.
"If she's willing.
And I want to meet you.
If that's something you'd consider."
"I think so," I said.
"I think that's why I called."
I looked at the lights in the houses along the road.
Ordinary lives behind ordinary windows.
"Evelyn." His voice was careful.
"Does your husband know you're calling me?"
"No."
"Is he going to try to stop this?"
May you like
I thought about Charles reaching for the paper on the restaurant table.
"He's going to try," I said.
