‘We saw you graduate, though,’ Dilys put in, returning with a tray with mugs of coffee and a plate of sliced and buttered bara brith, Welsh tea bread, and placing the tray on the table.
Rhys blinked. ‘You were there? But…how?’
‘Myfanwy in the village used to keep your father posted. She knew your mam wasn’t going, so she told us. We rang the university to find out where and what time and if we could get a ticket,’ Dilys explained.
‘I didn’t see you there.’
‘I didn’t know if we’d be welcome,’ Llewellyn said, ‘so we kept out of the way. But I saw you up there on the stage and I was so proud of you. My son, the doctor.’
‘You never said.’
‘And you never asked,’ Llewellyn countered.
Dilys cuffed her husband’s arm. ‘Don’t be awkward, Llewellyn. He’s here now, and that’s what matters.’ She smiled at Rhys. ‘We brought the girls up knowing they had a big brother and hoping that they’d meet him some day. If it was up to them, they’d have been here this afternoon, and they’ve already sent about fifty text messages to my phone between them saying, “Is he here yet?”’ She placed a hand in front of her heart. ‘Now, there’s me running on, and I promised myself I wouldn’t put pressure on you. It’s just that we’ve waited so long and wanted so much…’ Her eyes filled with tears. ‘I’m so sorry, Rhys.’
‘It’s not your fault.’ Rhys swallowed. ‘And, just so you know, Dilys, I never blamed you for Dad leaving. I know he left well before he met you.’
‘It was hard, with your mam.’ Llewellyn grimaced. ‘I lost my job when the pit closed. I couldn’t provide for my family, so I didn’t feel like a real man and I was hard to live with, too. And then…’ He stopped.
Rhys knew exactly what his father couldn’t say. So he was going to have to be the one to raise it. ‘And then Gwyneth died.’
Llewellyn closed his eyes for a moment. ‘I felt so helpless. And it got worse and worse. In the end, I had to leave.’ He sighed. ‘I wanted to take you with me—but you were all your mam had. I couldn’t be cruel enough to take you away from her.’ He shook his head and rested a hand on his son’s shoulder. ‘We’ve lost years. But maybe now we can make a fresh start. Get to know each other—and in time you might come to see me as your father, not a distant stranger.’
‘I’d like that,’ Rhys said.
‘And although I’m not your mam,’ Dilys said, ‘I’ve always thought of you in my head as one of mine.’
Rhys was too choked to answer in words. He simply hugged them both.
‘Thank you, cariad,’ Llewellyn said to Katrina. ‘Thank you for bringing my boy back to me.’
The rest of the afternoon was a blur, with Dilys showing Rhys pictures of his half-sisters, Llewellyn showing them an old photograph of four-year-old Rhys holding baby Gwyneth and promising to get it copied for them, and Rhys and Katrina telling them both about the hospital and their life in London.
Rhys refused their invitation to stay for dinner. ‘Not because I don’t want to, but we’re going back to London tonight—we’re both on duty tomorrow. But I’ll call you. And we’ll see each other soon. Maybe you can come to London.’
‘We’d like that, wouldn’t we, Dilys?’ Llewellyn said.
‘Yes, and the girls will want to see you.’ Dilys insisted on taking a photograph of him before they left, and Katrina took one of the three of them together on Dilys’s camera as well as the camera on Rhys’s mobile phone and her own.
‘You have a safe journey, now,’ Dilys told them, hugging them both goodbye. ‘And we’ll see you soon.’
When they drove away, Katrina was quiet.
‘What are you thinking?’ Rhys asked.
‘If you’d grown up with Dilys and Llewellyn, you’d have had a very different life. You’d have been loved, Rhys, and you’d have known that you were loved.’
He shrugged. ‘But maybe then I wouldn’t have come to London. And I wouldn’t have met you. And aren’t you the one who always looks at the glass as half-full, not half-empty?’
‘True.’
His mouth tightened briefly. ‘I can’t believe my mother actually kept my father’s birthday and Christmas cards from me. I mean, what did she gain from it?’
‘Maybe she was scared of losing you,’ Katrina said. ‘Maybe it was her way of holding on to you. If you thought she was your only family…’
‘Hmm.’ He sighed. ‘Part of me wants to drop in and see her. Confront her. But that’s not going to achieve a thing, just drive her even further away. I’m not sure you’ll ever get the same kind of welcome from her as you did from Dilys.’