‘Believe me, sweetheart, I am delighted that Will has finally seen the light and decided to get to know Amelia after so long,’ she said through gritted teeth. She could feel Amelia frowning at her – Maggie never usually called people ‘sweetheart’ or pet names, and this one had come out with a properly sibilant hiss of contempt. ‘And about time too! He’s missed out on so much over the years, believe me! However, seeing as we are currently on holiday, I—’

‘Mum, it’s fine, don’t make a fuss,’ Amelia said, and Maggie’s words faltered, then died in her throat. Where was the justice in the world, she thought, when her only child was siding with him, with them, when for so long Will had been completely absent from the picture? She actually felt as if she might be sick with the sheer wrongness of it all.

Will put his hands up. Like it or not (not, thought Maggie), he still had the charisma she had fallen for in the first place. He still had that crooked smile, that insouciant manner; the magnetism that drew people in. Everyone had always wanted to be Will’s best friend. ‘Listen, I don’t want to come between the two of you,’ he said. ‘We don’t argue in this house. Bad for the vibes.’ He gave Amelia his special twinkly grin to show he was joking, that he didn’t really believe in ‘vibes’, and Maggie saw her melting a little in adoration. Oh, sod off, Will. ‘So if your mum says you have to leave tomorrow, then . . .’

Right. You shit. In other words, he was assigning himself the role of easy-going Good Cop, and leaving Maggie to be the uptight bad guy. Thanks a bunch, mate. Rule number one of parenting: solidarity with other parents. Especially when it came to the woman who had spent the last fourteen years raising your first-born. What a creep he was. It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him to shove his good vibes somewhere extremely painful.

They all knew she had lost, but she gave him a hard, appraising look nonetheless, one that left him in no uncertainty about what she thought. ‘Friday it is,’ she said, her heart cracking a little as Amelia gave a cheer and clapped her hands together. ‘If you’ve got enough clean clothes to last that long, that is . . . ?’

Amelia rolled her eyes. ‘You’re so funny, Mum. Bye, then!’

Celeste smiled sweetly, mashing tea leaves in the pot. ‘Bye, Maggie. Good to meet you.’

So Maggie was to be dismissed then, just like that, before the tea had even been poured? Well, fine. She wanted to go anyway – or rather she needed to, before she did anything embarrassing, like angry crying. ‘Bye, love,’ she said to Amelia, ignoring Celeste. Her eyes smarted and she gave a quick watery smile before turning for the door.