For my three wonderful children, Benjamin, Amélie and Elise.
You make my world beautiful.
You don’t have to read this book, but if you do, please wait until you’re much older.
I love you,
Mummy xxx
“What the truth is and what we want as the truth are two separate things.
The former sheds light; the latter darkness.”
Unknown
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This can’t be it, I think, my heart sinking as I see it for the very first time. I pull in to the side of the country lane. Resting my arms over the steering wheel, I lean forwards and study the house through the windscreen. Even from this distance it appears austere. Isolated. Built in cold, dark grey stone, the building dominates the valley from the top of a steep gravel driveway. It is prison-like with its barred
