The Winter Children 4 - The End (Pages 283 - end)

 RATING: OKAY

SPOILERS!!!

Francesca does not seem eager to return to her own family in Geneva. Dan is getting nervous as she keeps talking about 'their' children. So he tells Olivia that if Francesca does not leave, they will have to consider moving somewhere else. When Olivia goes to talk to her agent in London, Francesca confronts Dan. We then discover that at university Dan treated her selfishly, using her as a puppet. Just before finishing, they got together, and Francesca  onfessed how much she loved him. Dan said that they could have a relationship but they had to keep it secret. Yet, he left her when it was not convenient for him any longer. Francesca reminds him how badly he has always treated her, and then it is thanks to her that he has the children.

Olivia appears suddenly. She has heard everything, and she is totally outraged, and she tells Dan that their marriage is over as he has deceived her in a most terrible way. Packing her things and the twins', they go to the airport and travel to Argentina to be with her sister and mother. It is in Argentina where Francesca finds her, and at first, Olivia refuses to talk to her, and then she agrees. Francesca says that both of them have been blinded by Dan and his ways, but now she has realised that she is happy with her family, and she has no intention to play the winning card about the twins. She now understands that Olivia is their mummy. Francesca has told her husband almost everything, and he has been very understanding. Francesca and Olivia part ways, but they reach an understanding.

In the epilogue Olivia gets a letter from the clinic in Spain, telling her that the eggs they implanted was not the ones she and her husband wanted. There was some problem with those eggs, and they used another donor's. So this means that Francesca is not related to the twins at all.

As for the story in 1959/60, Alice returns to the school pregnant. Julia discovers it, but Alice threatens to stop talking to her if she tells her mother. All Julia does is tell Donnie, and he tells her that Roy is a drunk and won't care about her. One day Julia can see that Alice is in discomfort, and that night she finds her gone. Julia goes after her and finds her outside the caravan. She is in labour, and she and Donnie help her give birth. The baby is born dead, and Donnie takes the baby and says that he will take care of him. 

After that, the school learns about the pregnancy, and Alice leaves, and shortly afterwards parents start to remove their girls from the school. Julia is one of the last ones to leave, and in this time she and Donnie become close.

In the epilogue Julia returns to what used to be her school and finds Donnie. He is the caretaker, William, and Donnie is just the shortened form or his surname, O'Donnel. Julia tells him that she had his son, and now he is in his fifties and has children of his own. Julia never married and has told him everything, and he is willing to meet William.

I enjoyed part of the novel, but I found some parts too far-fetched and unbelievable, especially the part about Alice's pregnancy.