The Family Upstairs

Lucy and Henry go to the door together and welcome Libby into the Chelsea house. Libby introduces Miller Roe as her friend. Lucy observes that Libby “is average height, average build, nothing like the huge roly-poly baby she left behind in the Harrods crib” (305). Lucy has to resist the urge to hug Libby. Lucy introduces Libby to Marco and Stella, and explains that Libby is their sister, Lucy’s daughter who she had to leave behind in London. Marco and Stella run up to Libby and hug her, and “Lucy sees Libby’s eyes open with surprise but also with pleasure” (306). Lucy begins to cry, seeing all three of her children together at last.

In Chelsea, in 1994, the day after Birdie’s birthday party and the deaths of the four adults, Henry ties Phin to a radiator until he can decide what he and Lucy should do next. Henry realizes they can go to the police and tell them David abused Lucy. The police can run a DNA test on Serenity and learn that Lucy was the victim of statutory rape. Henry plans to forge a suicide note stating that the adults, so overcome with shame for how they treated the children, killed themselves.