The Family Upstairs

Lucy and Henry look at each other. Now, Lucy recognizes Henry as her brother, whom she hasn’t seen since they were teenagers. Lucy accuses Henry of leaving the baby behind. Henry replies that it was Lucy who left the baby behind—Henry is the one who stayed in England. They are both silent for a moment, then Lucy introduces Henry to her children, Marco and Stella. Henry reveals that he met Serenity and that Serenity has been by the house. Henry tells Lucy that Serenity is grown-up, healthy, and pretty. Henry reveals that Serenity is currently with Clemency. Henry installed a tracking device on Lucy’s phone. Henry pulls out his own phone and points to Lucy’s location on a map on the screen, which currently shows Clemency’s house in Cornwall. Henry turns up the volume and Henry and Lucy can listen to Serenity and Clemency’s conversation through the phone. 

Clemency asks Miller Roe to take her dog for a walk so she can talk to Libby in private.

Clemency explains that Henry had come up with a plan to drug the adults using an herb from his garden, knocking them temporarily unconscious, so the children could take the baby and escape the house. The plan was to find a trustworthy adult and tell him about the situation at the house, and then to find a payphone and call Sally, Clemency’s mother. One day, David announced they were going to have a special birthday celebration for Birdie, and the children decided this would be their opportunity to escape. Henry prepared a big dinner for everyone, giving him a chance to put the drugs in the adults’ food. At Birdie’s birthday dinner, after about 20 minutes, all the adults were unconscious. Henry explained that they had about 30 minutes until the adults woke up. The children stole David’s keys and broke into David and Birdie’s room to find clothes and money. As they were gathering supplies and preparing to leave, Clemency noticed that Phin was standing behind her. Clemency told Phin to hurry up and find some warm clothes, but Phin said he was too sick to come with them. The baby started to cry, and then Birdie came into the room, lunging for the baby. Clemency was scared that all the other adults had woken up too. Suddenly, Henry stabbed Birdie in the side of the head with an antler from a taxidermy animal, killing Birdie. Henry left the room, and when he returned, he revealed that something must have gone wrong with the herbal concoction, and all three adults—David, Henry Lamb, and Martina Lamb—were dead. The children suddenly realized they can’t just go tell a policeman what happened, because they just killed four people.

Back in the present day, Clemency stops and asks Libby if they can step out into the garden so Clemency can have a cigarette before she finishes the story. 

In Chelsea, in 1994, after realizing the adults were all dead, Henry locked Phin in his bedroom. Henry, Clemency, and Lucy wrapped Birdie in towels, carried her to the rooftop, and stuff her body into a gully, covering it with wet leaves and old wood. Back in the kitchen, Henry arranged the bodies of David, Henry Lamb, and Martina Lamb to look like members of a cult arranged in a suicide pact. Henry pressed the adults’ fingertips against the empty phials of the poisonous herbal remedy, set them on the table, and arranged the adults so they were holding hands. Then, Henry, Clemency, and Lucy filled bags with all the items stashed in David’s room, pocketing money and jewelry for themselves. Henry, Clemency, and Lucy dropped the weighted bags into the Thames river. As Henry, Clemency, and Lucy turned away from the river and headed back toward the house, Clemency took off running. Henry ordered Lucy to go back to the house and chased after Clemency. But Henry stopped chasing Clemency when he realized, “What explanation would I give for myself, in a black robe, chasing a young, terrified girl, also in a black robe, with no shoes on her feet?” (298). Finally, Henry returned to the house and told Lucy, who was holding the baby, that Clemency was gone.

In Cornwall, Clemency continues to tell Libby what happened after she took off running from the Chelsea house. First, Clemency went to the emergency room and told a nurse her brother was ill at her house. The nurse asked Clemency where her parents were and Clemency suddenly went silent, realizing she’d have to explain the deaths of the adults and many other details. Clemency spent the night wandering the hospital. In the morning, Clemency wandered through London. Following signs, Clemency finally made it to the train station and took a train to Cornwall. Clemency didn’t know her mother’s address, but she was able to find her mother’s apartment based on memories and stories her mother had told. Finally, Clemency made it to Sally’s apartment. Sally welcomed Clemency inside and asked where Phin was. Clemency was about to tell Sally the truth, but then,

I stopped. Because the truth was that I’d run away and I’d left him there, locked in his room. And if I explained why he was locked in his room and then I’d have to explain everything else. And I looked at her and she was so damaged and I should have told her everything. But I just couldn’t do it (301).

Clemency finally told Sally that the adults killed themselves in a suicide pact and that Henry, Lucy, Phin, and the baby were all safely waiting for the police.

Clemency mentions that Lucy, at 14, was the one who gave birth to Serenity. Libby is shocked to learn that her mother was Lucy Lamb and not Martina Lamb. Libby realizes, “Her mother was a teenage girl. A teenage girl, now a middle-aged woman lost somewhere in the world. Her father was a dirty old man, a child abuser, an animal” (302). Just then, Libby receives a message from an unknown number. In the message is a picture of Lucy, her two children, and her dog in the Chelsea mansion, and a message to come back.

Miller Roe and Libby make the five-hour drive back to Chelsea. Outside the house, Libby calls the unknown number and says, “This is… this is Serenity” (304).