Glory was woken by Julian peeling himself off her. His vest was damp where it had been pressed between their sleeping bodies and he pulled it over his head and walked to the bathroom.
“I’m starving,” he said. “Let me have a shower, and then we can go and get something to eat.”
“I need to tell you something,” Glory said, drawing him back into the room. She patted the sofa next to her.
“Don’t know how much more bad news I can take right now, to be honest.”
“No, this is good—mostly.”
Glory reached into her pocket and pulled out the scrap of paper, unfolding it and holding it out.
“I met Mama Wawo and she gave me this.”
Julian took it from her carefully.
“That’s her number,” Glory said.
“Mama Wawo’s number?”
“No. Hope’s number. My sister is on the other end of that number!” Glory pointed at the paper until her finger started shaking.
Julian raised his eyebrows, his eyes wide.
“Swear down? Have you called it?”
“Not yet.”
“Call her now then.”
“I don’t know what to say.”
“There’s only one thing to say: Hi, my name’s Glory, I’m your sister.”
Julian pulled out his phone and typed in the numbers. He pressed the call button and gave the phone to Glory who looked petrified. When she refused to take the device, he pushed it up against her ear.
Glory’s heart was beating in her throat as the phone rang and her brain spun through what she might say when Hope answered. To her relief, it rang through to voicemail.
“Oh, erm. Hi. My name’s Glory. I got your number from a woman called Mama Wawo. I think I’m—I guess, I mean, yeah. I’m your twin? Sorry. Please call me back when you get this.”
She ended the call quickly and threw the phone at Julian like it was burning her fingers. He was sniggering.
“You never gave your number. She’s gonna call me back.”
“Oh shit.”
Glory redialed the number and left another halting message, this time reciting her number twice at the end of it. When the call finished her hands were shaking.
“Now you wait,” Julian said simply.
Glory breathed in deeply through her nose, trying to steady the pattering rhythm of her heart. Underneath the fear was a small bead of excitement that she could feel growing. She leaped onto Julian and kissed him furiously.
“Oh my God, I can’t believe this is happening!” she exclaimed when she finally pulled away from him.
She wanted to tell everyone, her mother, Victor and Faith. She couldn’t wait to tell them that she had found Hope. Faith would be happy, she tried to convince herself, her hesitation was because—what was it that Michael had said?—she was trying to protect their mother. She was scared of disappointment. That was it! And Glory was positive that this discovery could cure her mother’s broken heart. And if Daddy was still here . . . But on remembering her father, Glory’s own heart sank.
“You cool?” Julian asked, watching her face drop from ecstasy to misery.
“Mama Wawo said . . .” Glory was about to start crying.
“Said what?”
Glory exhaled and collapsed into a slouch.
“Do you remember when Princess Diana died? My parents had the worst argument ever about the flag. You know how Buckingham Palace didn’t lower the flag like they’re supposed to do when one of them dies?”
Julian looked at her, confused, waiting for this tangent to make sense.
“My mum was so upset about it. She was crying.”
“About the flag or about Diana?”
“About everything, I guess. But my dad was just angry. He was like What did you expect? She embarrassed herself and the whole Royal Family! She’s a disgrace! I never understood how they both could feel so strongly about people they’d never met, but I was such a daddy’s girl I just agreed with him by default, even when I didn’t understand.”
Glory shook her head and laughed sadly, brushing fluff from the legs of her jeans.
“He actually sat me down and gave me this lecture about collective responsibility, upholding family honor and how disgrace cannot go unchecked, or something. I was like, what? Seven? Eight? I just nodded along like I knew what he was talking about. Well . . . my mum always says what’s done in the dark will always come to light. I think that’s from the Bible.”
Julian nodded slowly, digesting this long-winded anecdote.
“My mum loved Princess Diana,” Julian said after a moment or two.
“They all do.” Glory sighed.
“I spent years telling people that my dad was some big shot in Nigeria and that’s why he wasn’t here. When I finally met him I was really disappointed. He was showing me pictures of his other children and the only thing I could think was, I should have told everyone he was dead.”
“How old were you?”
“Fifteen or sixteen,” Julian said wistfully. “Seeing your parents for who they really are instead of who we want them to be is one of the shit parts of growing up. But that don’t mean everything good we thought about them don’t exist either.”
“Yeah, well the reason why Hope ended up with that white family is because one day my dad lost his temper and beat her so badly that my mum was scared.”
“Shit.”
“And Hope tried to get in contact with my parents not long ago, but Daddy basically told Mama Wawo he wasn’t interested.”
Glory pressed a finger and a thumb into her tear ducts.
“I didn’t recognize the man who would do that, not at first. But then I piece together all the different parts of him that I know, some parts I even used to think were good and then I can see it. I can see what Faith is talking about when she says he wasn’t as good as I thought he was.”
Julian put his hand on Glory’s knee.
“But there were still parts of him that were good though, right?”
“What’s good about your dad?” she asked him.
“I don’t know, I don’t know him like you knew yours.”
“Sorry.”
“For what? It’s not your fault.” He took one of Glory’s hands. “Now I really need to get in the shower, babe, I feel like a tramp.”
Julian kissed her knuckles and left the room.