The Family Upstairs

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. As Henry explains his plan, Lucy reveals that Serenity isn’t David’s, but Phin’s. Lucy was having sex with David, but there were also two occasions in which she snuck into Phin’s room and had sex with him. Horrified, Henry says, “Get away from me. You’re disgusting. You’re sick and you are disgusting. You are a slut. A dirty, dirty slut” (309). Henry goes into Phin’s room and accuses him of having sex with his sister. Henry thinks, “I could put a pillow over his face and push down, hold my face next to his to draw in his dying breath, whisper soothing words into his ear, overpower him, snuff his life force, take his power for myself” (310). But Henry is also in love with Phin. Finally, Henry unties Phin from the radiator, and they lay down next to each other. Henry and Phin both fall asleep. When Henry wakes up two hours later, Lucy and Phin are gone, and Serenity is alone in her crib. 

Libby observes that Lucy is someone who clearly loves her children. Libby asks Lucy why Lucy left her behind.

Lucy explains that after Henry fell asleep, Lucy woke up Phin and convinced him to come with her to the doctor around the corner. Even though they hadn’t been to the doctor in years, Lucy remembered the doctor from her childhood. It was around midnight. The doctor opened the door, clearly annoyed, but invited them inside once he saw Phin. The doctor took Phin in to be examined, and Lucy fell asleep on the couch. When Lucy woke up, it was about five in the morning. Phin was attached to a drip. The doctor stated, “Look, I don’t know what’s going on here and I don’t want to get involved in any of this. But you have brought this boy to my door and I have a duty of care toward him” (313-14). The doctor explained that Phin was severely malnourished, and that Lucy looked anemic as well. The doctor convinced Phin and Lucy to stay for a while so he could run tests and give them something to eat. By the time Lucy was able to get back to the house, the police and social services had been by and Libby (Serenity) was gone.

After Henry realizes Lucy and Phin aren’t coming back, Henry takes care of Serenity. However, Henry soon realizes he needs to do something or the bodies of the three adults in the kitchen will start to decompose. Henry adds a line to the forged suicide note to make it sound like the baby is his parents’, Henry and Martina Lamb’s. Henry makes sure Serenity is well fed with a clean diaper, takes a bag filled with money and jewels, and leaves. Henry finds a payphone and calls the police. Using a fake accent, Henry says he is a neighbor, and he is worried about the family at the mansion. Then, Henry checks into a hotel under the name Phineas Thomson. Henry explains, “Thomson with an O. Not Thomsen with an E. I wanted to be almost Phin. Not completely Phin” (316). On the TV in his hotel room, Henry sees the police search the house. The police believe the story about the suicide cult and hand the baby over to social services. No DNA test is ever run on the baby.

Over the next several years, Henry moves around, dates various men, and gets a job working for an internet company. Henry moves up quickly with the company and soon he is making six figures. Eventually, unable to forget about the house, Henry goes to the office of the solicitors of the estate, but they won’t give him any information. Henry seduces a young man in the office and eventually gets him to photocopy the Lamb trust paperwork. Henry learns,

Number sixteen Cheyne Walk and all its contents to be held in the trust for the descendants of Martina and Henry Lamb until the oldest reaches the age of twenty-five. David had not managed to get his hands on it after all and neither, it seemed, had Lucy reappeared to make a claim (318).

In June, the month of Libby’s 25th birthday, Henry rents an Airbnb across the river from the mansion. Henry sneaks onto the roof one night and disassembles Birdie’s skeleton, putting the bones into a bag and dropping them into the Thames river. Then, Henry watches the house from his binoculars across the river and waits for Libby to show up. Henry insists, “It was about closure. And it was about you, Serenity, and the bond I shared with you” (319).

Libby asks Lucy what happened to Phin after they went to the doctor’s.

Lucy says that the doctor helped Lucy and Phin escape to France. Lucy explains, “He always had a number he could ring, a favor he could call in, a man who knew a man. He was the private physician to some very high-profile criminals […] And once he saw that we were on the news he just wanted us gone and away” (320). A man helped Lucy and Phin escape to Bordeaux, where they were allowed to live on a farm as long as they helped out with chores. The farm owner had a fiddle, and Lucy would play for the farm’s students and itinerants. Nothing romantic ever happened between Lucy and Phin again; Lucy explains, “What happened between us, before, it was only because of the situation we were in together. Once we were free from all of that we fell back into being just friends. Almost like brother and sister” (321). Lucy and Phin talked about the baby Serenity all the time, but never discussed what had happened to their parents. One morning, after about two years on the farm, Lucy woke up and Phin was gone, leaving only a note that stated he had gone to Nice. Lucy followed him to Nice but never found him.

Lucy explains that she has been waiting until Libby’s 25th birthday to come back. Libby thinks, “There it is. Finally. The whole picture. Apart from one piece. Her father” (322).