The Family I Lost

There are two little girls in the photo. I instantly recognise myself as the small, dark-haired child in the purple dress. But who is the girl with the long blonde hair laughing at the camera? And why is the photograph here, in a stranger’s house?

When I find the tattered picture hidden away at the back of a dusty cupboard in Amy’s house my mouth goes dry with shock. Though I haven’t known Amy for very long, I love looking after her young children, in her picture-perfect hilltop house with its sprawling wildflower garden and bright, airy kitchen. After feeling lost for months, reeling from the accident that tore everything apart, I hoped this was my chance to turn my life around.

But I can’t shake the feeling that I’ve been here before. I know this house somehow, the curve of the staircase and the view from the attic window are so familiar. I can feel it in my bones. What isn’t she telling me?

I can’t help noticing things that don’t add up: Amy’s guarded behaviour when I ask questions about her past, the whispered stories I overhear in the village and the locked room downstairs I’m not allowed to enter.

My mother always told me we didn’t have any family, that it was just the two of us against the world. I’ve always been sure she was hiding something. Maybe this house will give me the answers I’ve been searching for…

But am I ready to unlock the secrets of my past? Or should I have stayed well away?