Lucy Greenwell

For Jess, it's simple.

Her birth mother is the villain in this story.

She's a woman who abandoned a baby and then lied about it.

I've thought a lot about Jennifer.

And to me, this lie was just the latest in what must have been countless untruths woven together in order to secure this secret over decades.

If you've spent a lifetime protecting that secret, then dismantling that lie and everything you've built around it just as soon as your secret daughter lands unexpectedly in your DMs, it would take immense courage.

And yet, if you don't want to be found and you don't want to tell the truth, why respond to Jess at all?

Why not stay silent?

Is anyone close in your life called Jenny?

Because if there is, let's not do that.

OK.

OK, well, let's go with Jennifer.

It's quite a popular name in those of people born in 69 or whatever.

It's almost 40 years since Jess was found on that verge.

Her birth mother now lives hundreds of miles from the place in Suffolk where Jess was abandoned.

She has a husband and children and a career in the NHS.

So, Jennifer isn't her real name.

We've changed that and any other details that might identify her.

After receiving her DNA results, Jess thinks about contacting Jennifer again, about sending a message.

But she doesn't.