Thicker Than Water (30 page)

Ken led her to the cafe and insisted on buying her a coffee, despite her protests. She didn’t know the technical term, especially as he was the supposed medical expert, but her
layman’s opinion was that he was slightly mad.

He did at least appear to know his stuff though. After finally settling at a table, Jessica sipped her coffee as he enthused about the jam roly poly and custard he had bought himself. As soon as
she mentioned a blood disorder that was called ‘von something’, the man’s eyes lit up.

‘Von Willebrand disease,’ he said matter-of-factly, shovelling a spoonful of custard-covered cake into his mouth.

He started to speak about a Finnish scientist but Jessica hurried him on to what concerned her. ‘What actually is it?’ she asked.

Ken spoke far too quickly and, before she knew it, he was talking to her about platelets. She interrupted, asking him to put it into language she could understand.

Unperturbed, he took another spoonful of custard, before having another go. ‘When you get a cut, the blood clumps together and forms a scab,’ he said, which Jessica nodded along
with. ‘When you have von Willebrand’s, your blood doesn’t clot in the same way, which means you continue to bleed for longer.’

‘How long?’

‘It depends on how serious it is.’

‘How do you catch it?’

‘It’s usually inherited from a parent.’ Ken used the spoon to slice himself another piece of cake, blowing on it, before putting it in his mouth.

‘So if your dad has it, you’ll get it?’

Ken shook his head, still chewing. ‘Not necessarily, it’s about a fifty per cent chance.’

‘So if one child has it, another one won’t?’

He looked at her sideways as if she was a student who had asked a stupid question, although the smear of custard around his lips didn’t give him the gravitas he was perhaps trying for.
‘Not at all, it’s like tossing a coin. Each time you flip it, it has half a chance of coming down tails, regardless of what happened last time.’

‘So two children could both end up with it?’

Ken picked up the final piece of cake. ‘Exactly, but not just two. You could have ten children and all of them inherit it – or none of them. It’s an equal chance every
time.’

Jessica nodded, fairly sure she understood, and watched while the man finished his dessert before glancing towards the food-serving area, presumably wondering if there was any more.

‘I met someone who I think had it,’ Jessica said. ‘He got this bad nosebleed.’

‘Sounds about right.’

‘Would it be right that his son’s gums could bleed?’

Ken nodded emphatically. ‘Probably, yes, if he had inherited it. You can have some really impressive bruises too that are all sorts of colours. It can create problems during surgery of
course because it’s hard to stop the bleeding, while aspirin is off limits. It’s particularly bad for females, for obvious reasons.’

Jessica squirmed uncomfortably, thinking he couldn’t have picked a worse time to tell her that. She took a notebook out of her jacket, ensuring she had asked everything she wanted to. She
then got Ken to spell out the name of the disease so she could look it up herself.

As she stood to leave, Jessica realised there was something else. ‘Can I ask you one final thing?’ she asked politely.

The man was running his finger around the edge of the bowl but looked up, grinning widely. ‘Of course, dear.’

‘Is your first name Kenneth?’

‘Oh no, of course not.’ He looked at her with the same ‘are you stupid look’ he had before, although she had little time to query why he had asked her to call him by a
nickname when he added: ‘It’s Kendall.’

‘Kendall Kenyon?’

He licked the remaining custard from his fingers. ‘That’s right,’ he confirmed, as if it was the most natural revelation. ‘Perhaps you’ve read one of my theory
papers?’

Jessica shook her head and said her goodbyes, thinking that, if that’s what the custard did to you in this place, she had made a wise decision turning it down.

Kendall’s information had given Jessica something to think through but without checking more details, she only had the inklings of a theory. She would much rather have
continued to work but, seeing as Adam had apparently chosen tonight as the night he was going to finally come clean, Jessica figured it was as good a time as any to get the showdown out of the
way.

Wanting to avoid both Dave and Izzy, she went to a restaurant around the corner from the university and treated herself to some chicken and chips, at least wanting to confront Adam on a full
stomach.

She ate slowly, keeping an eye on the clock as she wanted to ensure he would get home before her. Usually she would have gone out of her way to avoid the main roads but now Jessica willingly sat
in the evening traffic, crawling a few car lengths at a time.

By the time she had parked and taken the lift up to their floor, Jessica was ready for whatever Adam might have to say. She had worked out a few different speeches, some more venomous than
others but ultimately she wanted to tell him that she understood. As much as she hated him for lying and going behind her back, she couldn’t deny that she was hard to live with. She
deliberately worked long and late; she didn’t sleep well, she had a short attention span, she swore a lot and it was her who had originally broken up with him a few years ago.

Whatever he had done, she accepted she deserved at least some of it.

Jessica took a deep breath and entered the flat, ready for anything except for the scene in front of her. Adam was sitting on the sofa grinning, as the blonde woman from the restaurant sat next
to him cradling his face in her hand.

Although Jessica had been prepared to forgive him and go their separate ways, she wasn’t ready for the outright slap in the face of him inviting the other woman around.
Jessica stood, staring in furious disbelief as the pair gazed into each other’s eyes.

‘I think yours are darker,’ the woman said, before Adam noticed Jessica in the doorway.

‘Jess, you’re back,’ he said, jumping up from the sofa and bounding across the room.

Jessica hadn’t closed the door but she was glaring daggers at him. ‘Who the hell is that?’ she shouted.

Adam was within touching distance of her but took a step back in surprise at the spite in her voice. ‘Jess . . . ?’

Jessica didn’t wait for him to say any more, turning and running out of the door and along the corridor. She hoped the lift would still be there but as she pressed the button, the annoying
voice taunted: ‘lift coming . . . up’. Seeing Adam racing towards her, Jessica stormed through the door next to the elevator, rushing down the stairs two at a time. She could hear him
calling after her but wasn’t interested in whatever he had to say.

By the time she reached the bottom, his voice had grown silent and she barged through the double doors, heading towards her car. She was practically running as she rounded the corner to find
Adam, who had presumably waited for the lift, sitting on her car bonnet. Blinking back tears, she ran at him, ignoring his outstretched arms and punching him hard in the chest. He staggered
backwards, his eyes telling the story of surprise.

‘Jess . . . ?’ he protested again, but she wasn’t ready for excuses.

‘Why did you bring her here?’ she shouted, pushing him away as he tried to reach for her.

‘Georgia?’

‘I don’t care what her name is – I saw you. I followed you that night you were working late when you went out with her instead. I sat and watched you chat and laugh in that
restaurant.’

Adam’s eyes widened as he moved a loose strand of hair away from his face. ‘It’s not what you think.’

‘I saw you going into the hotel afterwards.’

Jessica swung an arm out towards him, catching him in the sternum before he reached out and grabbed both of her hands to restrain her.

Jessica struggled but his grip was firmer than she had ever known it. She wanted to be strong but instead she felt the tears streaming down her face.

‘Jess, I was only checking the room where she was staying, honestly, that’s all.’

‘Why were you there at all?’

Adam continued to grip her wrists as she flailed. ‘Because she’s my sister. Well, half-sister . . .’

Jessica finally stopped struggling as Adam released her. She couldn’t stop the tears but shoved her hair out of her face. ‘You’re an only child.’

Jessica remembered standing in the kitchen of Adam’s grandmother’s house when he first told her the story of how his mother had died during childbirth. His father had killed himself
not long afterwards because he was only interested in his wife, not his son.

It was that day she knew she was in love with him.

There were tears in Adam’s eyes as he responded. ‘That’s why I didn’t tell you before – I didn’t know if it was true either.’

As she leant against her car, Jessica couldn’t stop crying. She used her sleeves to try to dry her eyes but the tears kept coming. Eventually Adam pulled his jumper over his head and
handed it to her. ‘Just don’t blow your nose,’ he said with a forced laugh.

The lump in Jessica’s throat was so large that she could barely breathe, let alone speak. In her head, she was trying to put the pieces together but it didn’t seem real.

‘I had a letter out of the blue a little while ago,’ Adam said. ‘You never know nowadays if it’s someone trying to scam you. It was from a woman named Georgia who had an
address in Bath. She said her father had recently died and she had been sorting through his things. She found a letter that had come from her mother. She was brought up all these years thinking her
mum had abandoned her.’

Jessica used the jumper to wipe her eyes but the tears continued to come. ‘How did she find you?’

‘The letter came from someone named Janet Boyes, which was my mum’s maiden name. It told Georgia’s dad to stop contacting her but because her full name was there, Georgia
started digging into things and found a marriage notice for my mum and dad. When my mum died, it was in the papers, so she discovered a son named Adam Compton and started trying to find me. She saw
on the university’s website there was someone with my name working there, so wrote to me on the off-chance.’

Jessica remembered the envelope she had found in the bin.

‘The computer . . . ?’

Adam reached out an arm and although Jessica didn’t allow him to embrace her, she didn’t push him away either. After letting his arm drop again, he sighed and apologised.

‘When I got that letter, it had an email address and phone number at the bottom. I wanted to believe it was true but Georgia didn’t know all the details either. We started emailing
each other, piecing together the timeline of what might have happened but I suppose it was a bit too much for me. I’ve spent my whole life thinking I was on my own and then this happened. I
wasn’t ready to talk to you because I wasn’t ready to admit it to myself either.’

Jessica was also an only child and tried to think how she might react if someone turned up claiming to be related to her. Would she keep everything quiet until she was absolutely sure? She tried
to tell herself she wouldn’t, but the fact she hadn’t yet told Adam what she had told Izzy only proved she was no different.

‘So is she actually your sister?’

Adam smiled in the way that had first drawn her to him; it changed his face from being someone she would look at and forget into
her
Adam.

‘Yes, she’s three years older than me and was born in Manchester. Her dad took her down south around a month before my parents got married.’

‘Why?’

‘We don’t really know. In the letter she found, it’s just from our mum telling her dad never to contact her again. It sounds like they had some sort of affair. For whatever
reason, our mum didn’t want her in the same way my dad . . . didn’t want me.’

Adam’s voice cracked as he finished his sentence and Jessica reached out towards him, pulling him towards her as he grasped at her.

‘I’m so sorry,’ he sobbed.

Jessica wanted to apologise herself but the lump was bulging in the back of her throat, tears streaming down her face.

It felt like hours before Adam finally released her, taking her hand. ‘We should probably introduce you properly.’

Jessica snorted half a laugh, realising what a horrendous scene she had made. ‘She’s going to hate me already, isn’t she?’

Adam shrugged. ‘I’ve seen you make worse first impressions.’

Jessica giggled, more tears running down her face. She started to walk towards the lifts but realised Adam hadn’t moved and was still holding her hand. She turned to face him but his
expression had changed as he looked into her eyes.

‘Do you trust me?’ he asked.

His voice sounded so aggrieved that Jessica didn’t know where to look.

‘Yes . . . I mean . . .’ She paused, trying to find the words, before admitting: ‘I don’t know what I mean.’

Adam nodded, knowing she was being honest. ‘We’ve got to trust each other.’

‘You didn’t trust me enough to tell me about Georgia when your letter arrived.’

‘I know.’

They stared at each other before Adam cracked first, his giggling soon spreading to Jessica.

‘I thought I was coming home for you to break up with me,’ she said as they walked slowly across the car park.

‘Why would I do that?’

‘I don’t know, that’s just what I thought. Isn’t that what “we have to talk” is code for?’

Adam shrugged. ‘Can we make a pact to tell each other things in future?’

Jessica hesitated as Adam pressed the button for the lift. The voice told them it was ‘coming down’. ‘I’ve got something to tell you,’ Jessica said.

‘Anything.’

Adam squeezed her hand to tell her he meant it.

‘Can you trust me for a day or two?’

The lift doors pinged open as Adam pulled her close and kissed her on the top of the head. ‘Whenever you’re ready.’

Adam stepped into the lift but this time Jessica kept hold of his hand, not moving. ‘I’ve got something I need to do,’ she said.

‘For work?’

‘Yes.’