I knew I should have just shut up and let her speak. I knew it. Yet I didn’t. Feeling unnerved, I continued wittering. ‘I know you don’t want things to change but surely you know they have to. When you went AWOL the other week, I was so worried about you. I’m still worried. I think you need to slow down. You’ve always taken on so much with the shop, the valuing, the bear-making, the workshops, and you’ve been this amazing woman who’s balanced all those things, run the house, and been a great mum to Logan and me, but it’s too much for you now. Everything’s slipping.’

I didn’t mean to do it, but I swept my hand round her bedroom to illustrate my point. ‘I want to take on some hours at the shop for you, maybe run some workshops. You might want to let go of the valuation roles. There’s too much pressure and too much travel for you. We could get a cleaner for here. One of Karen’s PT clients runs a cleaning company. I could ask her for the details. What do you think?’

Silence.

‘Mum?’

‘What do I think? Bloody hell, Jemma! I think you might as well strap a boulder to my legs and push me off Lighthouse Point.’

I flinched at her angry tone. ‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean you’ve obviously thought it all through and you’ve got a master plan which doesn’t feature me at all because you’ve already got me dead and buried. You want to take over my business, my job and my home. Do you want to play mum to Logan too because you’re clearly a way better mother figure than me? You’d never accuse him of stealing, would you?’

I’d never seen her looking or sounding so mad and it was all my fault. ‘That’s not what I meant,’ I said in a gentle voice, wishing I could take it all back. ‘I’m sorry.’

Mum wasn’t going to be appeased. ‘But it’s what you said, Jemma,’ she cried. ‘You started off by saying you didn’t want to take over and you wanted to know what would work for me. Then you reeled off a list of what you want to do and what you don’t want me to do. Clearly I don’t have a say in this exciting new life you have planned.’ She slapped her palm down on the duvet, making me jump.

‘Mum…’

She narrowed her eyes at me. ‘I should have known you’d be just like him.’

‘Like who?’