“Was James bipolar?”
The tears returned, and I watched her battle them. “We don’t use that word in our family.”
I stared at her for a moment. “Why not?”
“Mum and Dad don’t believe in it.” She kept walking. “James was always … troubled. But there was nothing wrong with him, nothing more than anyone else anyway, everyone feels a bit down sometimes.”
“Olivia! It was more than feeling down.”
She laughed, bitterly. “I know, Dee, fuck, do I know that. I’m just telling you how it goes. The party line—what we told people when they asked.”