Her Mother’s Lies by Rona Halsall

What if the person you trust most in the world, has been lying to you for your whole life?

Martha would do anything for her devoted mother, Fran. Now in her mid-twenties, Martha still lives with her in their remote, pretty cottage in the Cornish countryside. Fran paints illustrations, while Martha trains to be an animal nurse.

But then Martha sees a strange message on her mother’s phone – apparently from her estranged father.

He had been there for her first steps. He’d helped with her homework, and taken her for ice cream at weekends. And then, two days before her ninth birthday, he walked out. She never knew what went wrong, and she and Fran never heard from him again.

Desperate for answers, she tracks him down. But when they come face-to-face, she isn’t ready for the brutal truth.

Closing his eyes he says, ‘She hasn’t told you, has she? I’m not your father.’

Her mother has been telling lies.

And not just about who her real father is…