DavidIt was nothing to be ashamed of. That was what I told myself at the time. This daughter who had parachuted into my life out of nowhere didn’t need to be covered up or explained away with a mixture of apology and discomfiture. If a mistake had been made, it was the mistake of a younger man. What is youth without the odd indiscretion? The important thing, I reminded myself, whenever I felt the doubt creeping in, was how I handled it now. It was a situation requiring calm and maturity. I needed to be honest, upfront, and offer no apologies: there was nothing to apologize for.Not everyone shared this view. Caroline, for one, shrank from the notion when I informed her I was going to tell the children.‘What?’ she asked, clearly aghast.‘They have a right to know,’ I told her. ‘And a right to meet their half-sister.’‘Wait a second. Telling them about Zoë is one thing, but meeting her? What is it you intend to happen?’‘They ought to have some kind of relationship with her,’ I argued.
