Chapter 12
Hana found her positive resolve wilting as she met with Mark for the first time at a bar in Te Awa. The meeting sapped her energy in unexpected ways as she struggled to fit her brother into the role of cousin. She sympathised with Tama, rearranging his family to fit with his altered parentage.
Mark seemed tamer, as though life had knocked the sharp corners off him. Hana arrived to a drink already ordered for her and the first thing Mark said regarded the dreadful note he wrote after her mother died. “I sent it out of pure spite and jealousy, Hana. There’s no excuse; I was a grown man and should have known better. It followed a lifetime of jealousy over you, wishing I could make Robert and Judith’s ‘real’ baby go away.” Mark lowered his eyes and avoided Hana’s gaze. “It coloure
