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‘She told me I’d go to prison if I went to the police,’ Celia said. ‘She managed to convince me I’d be in serious trouble for never registering Charlotte, even though it was her decision to keep Charlotte’s existence a secret. Everything was her idea. My father … he was eccentric. Maybe a little autistic even, but he was never officially diagnosed. He could make the most beautiful, ornate clocks, but in other senses he was helpless. He couldn’t cook. My mother used to tell him what to wear each morning. Everything, all his international acclaim, it was down to my mother and her obsession with getting him up on a pedestal.’
‘She sounds terrifying.’
‘After they disappeared, she convinced me to say nothing about Charlotte, told me she’d frame me, ensure I was implicated in both my fathe
