I spoke to Perdita for maybe another ten minutes or so, however I remembered little of the conversation. I tried to talk about her life and the life of the blue-clothed workers, but my mind was far too distracted to process any of it all.

Tamsyn had a sister. Malcolm had another daughter.

The revelation itself was not what haunted me, but the responsibility of knowing. On the slow walk back to the home, my mind went back and forth as to whether I should tell Malcolm and Tamsyn. I either stayed quiet and left them in ignorance or became a messenger of turmoil.

The journey back to the house felt like a blur. I seemed to simply arrive back. My body on autopilot while my brain weighed the decision to be made. I walked through the door and into the living room where I kept my things.

“How was the trip?”

I turned to find Tamsyn standing behind me. I hadn't noticed her entering the room, and the moment of reorientation left me awkwardly hesitating. “It… it was good. Thank you for letting me go.”

She stared at my face for a few seconds, trying to read me. Eventually, she succeeded. “You saw her didn’t you?”

I wondered for a moment if I should deny it. But even that moment of contemplation meant it was too late. I nodded. “You knew she was there?”

“I suspected,” she replied. She walked into the room and fell heavily on an armchair. She sat with her eyes facing the floor, clasping her hands tightly together. “I only saw her once. About four years back. It was evening and... I was walking through the town when I caught the glimpse of what was like looking into a mirror. But the sun was setting, there were shadows across her face, and I was fifteen, you know, at that age where you’re never quite sure what you can trust? But…” she looked up to me with a grimmaced smile, “I never forgot.”

“So you never told Malcolm that he has another daughter?”

She shook her head.

I looked at the walls around us; all the portraits that kept watch over the home. All those years of history that Malcolm had purposefully hung up on display. “What do you think he would do if he found out?” I asked.

She shrugged. I wasn’t quite sure how to respond myself, so we both sat in the silence for a few minutes.

We were interrupted by the door opening and Malcolm bounding into the room with bluster. His eyes scanned our sullen faces. “What’s up with you two? You both look like death.” He chuckled with a large grin, that he seemed to assume would be contagious.

I looked to Tamsyn to see what she would do. I don’t know if I was simply too cowardly to decide on the right course of action myself, or if I was right in deciding that it was Tamsyn’s decision to make. But I stayed quiet, waiting for Tamsyn to decide. Eventually the silence cracked. “Dad. Ferdinand went to the blue settlement by the northern cliffs today.”

He tutted and with a quick nod walked into the room and sat down beside his daughter. “Well, I did warn you Ferdinand that it would be a disappointing experience. It’s not a jovial place over there…”

“That’s not the point,” Tamsyn interrupted. “He…” She paused and closed her eyes. “When mum died. Did they ever tell you anything?”

Malcolm’s eyes widened. “No.”

“Did they even tell you anything about me?” She scrunched her eyelids tighter, fighting back the tear that threatened to leak.

“You know the rules. They never tell you anything. For all I knew you died too. Why do you ask?” Malcolm’s eyes turned to me. “Ferdinand what did you do today to upset her so much?”

I was trying to remain an observer in the room, and the sudden switching of the focus to me caught me off guard. I mustered some panicked muttering about it not being about me before Tamsyn interrupted.

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“I have a sister,” Tamsyn interrupted. “You have another daughter.”

“How could you possibly know that?” Malcolm spluttered, with another laugh.

“We’re twins. She’s a spitting image of me.”

“You saw her?” Malcolm asked, his teeth gritted.

Tamsyn’s eyes retreated to the cieling. Her voice was broken. “Once. I thought I did. Years back. But Ferdinand met her today.”

Once more Malcolm’s eyes returned their gaze directly at me. That large round frame that usually seemed content and larger than life suddenly appeared dominating and threatening. “This true?”

“Yes.”

“And she is definitely my daughter. They look identical?” The words came quick and pointed.

“She’s maybe a tiny bit paler. Her face a bit thinner…”

“So it might be a coincidence,” Malcolm interrupted.

“No” I returned the interruption, mustering some commitment. “Tamsyn is correct... She is your daughter. Definitely.”

“I have a daughter who is a blue?” Malcolm kept his eyes fixed on mine. I nodded.

He stood up and paced across the living room. “I have a daughter who is a blue?” he raised his face to the sky and asked.

“She’s the same age as Tamsyn. She works at the settlement, so she barely leaves there. That’s probably why you’ve never seen her.” I don’t know why I thought more information may help, but somehow it was my instinct to try and fill the void.

“We can’t have a blue in the family,” Malcolm muttered to himself.

“Was this not always a possibility?” I asked. I immediately regretted pushing back, but as much as the revelation had shocked me too, everyone on this island had to know that the blues comprised of family.

“I only had one daughter,” Malcolm replied, a renewed bite to his voice.

“But, you must have had brothers or sisters, or uncles or aunts.”

“Never.” Malcolm snarled.

His frame seemed to grow wider as he stood over me. I felt I was only a question away from physical violence, so I kept silent. He retreated, muttering to himself. “There not in the family if they are a blue. They’re… they’re something else.”

Tamsyn stood, and walked over to her father, placing a hand on his back. “Dad, come sit down. We’re going to have to think about this…”

“No.” He shook his bowed head.

I watched his broad chest breathe in and out, trying to vent off the emotion bubbling within. The breaths became more stuttered as the pressure built until his eyes winced, and broken words fell from his lips. “I need to go.”

Malcolm marched out the room. I stood and went to follow him, but Tamsyn raised an arm between me and the doorway. “Let him go,” she said. “Give him some space.”

I listened to the front door slam and through the window watched Malcolm march down the road towards the town.

Both Tamsyn and I expected him to return fairly soon, but a few hours passed with no sign.

The day had given way to night. The warmth had been drained from the air, and even inside it felt bitterly cold. Tamsyn kept watch by the window, waiting for her father to return. I tried my best to comfort her, repeating mantras that he would be home soon, that she had no reason to fear. However she couldn’t help but continue staring out the window, waiting.

“Do you have any idea where he might have gone?” I asked.

“He likes the western side of the island, says the dramatic cliffs are more beautiful. Maybe he went there. Or he might have gone for a drink at someone’s house. Or…” She trailed off.

“Where?” I asked.

“He’s gone to see for himself,” she shrugged.

“You think he would do that?”

“I don’t know,” she said, turning to me, her cheeks visibly damp.

I am not quite sure how much time passed, but at some point, I fell asleep. I woke with my head dropped awkwardly on my chest, to the frenetic sound of Tamsyn’s voice. “He’s back. He’s here.”

It took a few seconds for my mind to understand the message, and a few more for my eyes to open. However, my slow arrival to consciousness was interrupted as I heard Tamsyn shout, “What have you done?”

T

he force of the shriek brought me into the room with a sudden jolt and I reflexively jumped to my feet.

I looked to the doorway as Tamsyn walked in still shouting. “You can’t do this. Do you have any idea what they’ll do?”

She was followed by a silent Malcolm, and then, by a very confused-looking Perdita.

Malcolm dragged his new daughter into the room, his hand gripped around the loose fabric of her sleeve, exposing just how skinny the limb beneath was. “I am not letting my daughter be a blue,” he said.

“You can’t decide that. You know that” Tamsyn pleaded, trying to get her father to look at her.

Perdita’s small frame sat down on the chair where I had been. Her eyes instinctually remained lowered in deference.

“They will find out,” Tamsyn shouted at her father. “Dad, you can’t do this.”

“What would you have me do?” He shouted raising him arms to the air.

“I don’t know,” she screeched, before quickly becoming more subdued. The next line was little more than a whisper. “I don’t know.”

Malcolm took a deep breath before returning to face Perdita. “You can sleep in my room tonight. I will sleep down here with Ferdinand. Ferdinand, I’m sorry you find yourself in this situation, but we will have to make do.”

I nodded. I only had one more night after this before my arranged pick up with Alessia.

“Perdita, come, I’ll show you to your room,” Malcolm said. He left, and led his newfound daughter up the stairs.

Tamsyn sat, slumped on the sofa. I walked over and sat beside her. “What do you think will happen?” I asked.

“I don’t think this has ever happened before. Not in my lifetime anyway,” Tamsyn said. “But… they will find out. They will