Ten minutes later, Phil and Ronnie were sitting in the kitchen, Ronnie staring into her untouched cup of sweet tea and Phil looking at his broken cousin. "You wanna tell me what that was all about?" He asked her, but she gave no response. "Is that why you've been like this with him all this time?" Still no response. "Ronnie, I can't help if you don't talk to me."
"No-one can help, Phil."
"That's not true."
"Isn't it?" Ronnie asked of him, looking him square in the face. "She's dead. My baby girl is dead. Fell in the bath, hit her head, drowned. Can you help?" Her voice was monotonous, void of all emotion; it was as though it had all seeped out of her with every tear she had cried.
"What?" Phil asked, confused by everything he had heard and seen.
"Why won't he tell me, Phil?" She closed her eyes, trying to block everything out, and a lone tear slipped from beneath her lip and trickled down her cheek. "All I want is to see her grave, but I don't even know her name. I don't even know my daughter's name," She cried, as sobs wracked her body. "How pathetic is that? I don't even know her name. I don't know her name. He knows but he won't tell me and I'm her mum! Her mum and I don't know her name."
Phil looked at her sadly, finally knowing exactly why she had never wanted Archie to infiltrate their lives. Why won't he tell her? What has he got to lose? I would do anything I could to stop Louise or Ben from being in pain and I'd hate myself if I caused 'em any – so why won't he tell her?
"Ron, Jack's asking- What's goin' on?" Roxy asked as she walked into the kitchen to see her sister crying and Phil just watching her helplessly. "Ronnie?" She knelt down by her sister's side, gently taking a hand in hers and rubbing the back of it with her thumb. "What's wrong?"
Ronnie shook her head and tried to smile through her tears. "Nothing, nothing. You know what it's like at this stage of the pregnancy, my hormones are all over the place."
Roxy looked from her sister to Phil, not believing a word of it. "Okay," she replied. "Jack's asking for you and p.s. we need to talk about that later, yeah."
Ronnie nodded, not really listening to the words Roxy had spoken. "Right. Erm, tell him I'll be down in a minute, yeah?"
"Okay," Roxy whispered. "I love you," she stated unexpectedly, giving Ronnie's cheek a kiss. Ronnie accepted the affectionate gesture, but she couldn't reciprocate, not just yet anyway.
Once Roxy had left the kitchen, Phil spoke. "We'll find her, Ron."
"She's gone, Phil. She's gone."
But Phil shook his head. "We'll find her."