The Family Upstairs

After exploring the mansion, Libby, Dido, and Miller Roe go to a nearby pub. The three of them wonder who could have been the man sneaking into the house and leaving behind the sock. Miller Roe believes whoever it was couldn’t have been living there—if he’d been living there, there would be more stuff left behind—so it must be someone who only comes occasionally. Libby thinks back to the last time she was in the house alone and heard noises upstairs. Miller Roe wonders if the person sneaking into the house is Henry, Libby’s biological older brother. Henry knows Libby’s birthday and would have known that she would inherit the house when she turned 25. Libby points out that if it had been Henry, why didn’t he come downstairs and introduce himself when they were both in the house? Miller Roe doesn’t know the answer to this question. Miller Roe doesn’t know much about Henry—only that Henry attended school until the age of 11 and was a clever kid but didn’t have many friends. Libby points out that they don’t know for sure if it is Henry. Libby wonders if it could have been one of the other previous inhabitants of the house. 

Lucy checks the time at Michael’s house and realizes it is getting later in the afternoon. Lucy wants to get the passports and leave, but “she also knows that in asking for the passports, she will be quickening the inevitable journey toward Michael’s bed” (145). Lucy clears the plates, and she and Michael go into the kitchen, where Michael starts some coffee. Lucy mentions that she needs to get back to Marco and Stella soon. Michael leaves the kitchen and returns with the passports. As he holds them out in a drawstring bag, Lucy “can’t work out what he’s doing. Is he expecting her to snatch them from him? Chase him? What?” (146). Michael suddenly pushes Lucy against the counter and begins kissing her. Lucy decides she will have sex with Michael in order to get the passports. As Michael pushes Lucy onto the counter, she knocks over a glass, and it breaks. Lucy can feel a shard of glass pressing into her back. She shouts out in pain. Lucy tries to explain that there is glass in her back, but Michael hits her and forces her to have sex with him. Lucy thinks, “this was not how it was going to be. It was going to be consensual” (148). Suddenly, Lucy grabs a knife and plunges it into Michael’s side. Michael pulls away from her and falls to the floor. Lucy tries to help Michael and announces that she will call an ambulance. But as Lucy takes out her phone, she realizes, the emergency services will probably believe she was raped and that Michael’s injury was self-defense, but they will also ask a lot of questions, discover that she is in France illegally, and may even take away her children. As Lucy contemplates what to do, Michael dies. Lucy takes the passports, one of which contains her new fake name, Marie Caron. Lucy realizes neither Michael nor his maid probably know where she or her children live. Finally, Lucy decides to hide Michael’s body in the wine cellar, take the passports, and leave. Lucy finds bleach and towels and begins cleaning up. 

In 1990 at the Chelsea mansion, Henry and Phin sit on the roof. Henry explains that Phin found the roof; Henry hadn’t known it existed and didn’t think his parents knew about the rooftop either, but there were chairs and potted plants implying that others had been up there. Phin takes out the acid and Henry and Phin take the drugs. For a while, Henry feels nothing, but then he begins to hallucinate. Phin and Henry see each other as different kind of animals and chase each other around the roof. Then, Henry and Phin sit down and hold hands, and Henry observes, “We’re the same person now” (153). Henry and Phin agree that they are having a good trip. Henry suggests they live up on the roof, and Phin agrees, and they go down the trap door back into the attic in order to grab pillows to bring onto the roof. As they are about to go back through the trap door with the pillows, they run into David. David notices they are on drugs and orders Henry and Phin downstairs to meet with their parents. David, Sally, and Henry and Martina Lamb drill the boys, asking, “How? What? Where from? How did you pay for it? Did they know how old you are? You could have died” (155). Birdie walks into the room. Still hallucinating, Phin tells Birdie she looks like a pig. Phin turns to his father, David, and says “So, that makes you a pig kisser!” (155) and reveals that Henry saw David and Birdie kissing. Phin begins laughing uncontrollably, but Henry only feels “cold, hard horror” (156). Phin’s mother, Sally, runs from the room. Phin, David, and Birdie all leave the room too. Martina Lamb makes Henry some toast and asks if what Henry said about David and Birdie was true. Henry confirms this. Henry asks what’s going to happen, and Martina says she doesn’t know but it won’t be good.

Lucy spends over an hour cleaning Michael’s home and hiding his body in the cellar. Lucy disposes of all traces of their lunch as well as the bloody latex gloves and towels. She takes the passports as well as 3,000 euros from Michael’s drawer and leaves. Lucy buys snacks and drinks for her children and goes home.

At the Blue House, the children are thrilled to see the snacks. Lucy explains that they are going to England by way of a series of trains and boats, and says, “we’re going to stay in a house I once lived in when I was a child” (159). Lucy tells the children to eat, get clean, and go to bed, so they can get up and leave early the next morning. Lucy tries to think of what to tell Giuseppe and finally decides to tell him a lie. Lucy goes into Giuseppe’s room and tells him she is taking the children on a holiday to Malta for a couple weeks, “feeling sad that she is misleading one of the kindest people she knows” (159). Giuseppe asks if she needs him to look after the dog, Fitz, but Lucy says she is taking Fitz along with her as an emotional support dog for her anxiety. Lucy tells Giuseppe that he can rent out her room while she is gone, and Giuseppe says he will keep it waiting for her for when they return.