‘I don’t know what you mean.’

‘Oh, come on. All the security devices Mum must’ve installed. If someone was to come within half a kay of this beautiful mansion, alarms would go off. Not out there. In here. And before they knew it, someone trying to take anything from us – hell, even if they weren’t thinking about it, but just stumbled across us accidentally – would be arrested or at least taken in by the security company Mum pays. It’s like a web. Get too close and you’re going to get stuck.’

‘Aiden,’ I said. ‘That’s just wrong. This house is not like that spider’s web. It’s beautiful, yeah, but it’s not designed to trap anyone.’

‘And then there’s the female spider, right there in the centre of the web, controlling everything.’ Aiden carried on as if I hadn’t said anything. ‘That’s Mum right there. Huge, controlling, at the centre.’ He laughed. ‘And tiny, ineffectual Dad stuck at the edges, too scared to come close, never mind do anything.’

‘I don’t think you should talk about Mum and Dad like that, Aiden.’ I was prepared to forgive him plenty of things after all he had done for me, but this was getting horrible. I wondered whether that head injury was much more severe than anyone had let on. But if that was the case, surely they wouldn’t have allowed him to come home? I closed my eyes, forced myself to stay calm, reasonable and understanding.

Aiden didn’t reply. He just sat there at the kitchen table, staring off into the distance. I’m not even sure he’d heard a word I’d said.

‘And another thing,’ he continued. ‘We exist with no connection to the outside world. Not really. That spider’s web was there, wonderful, rich and beautiful, but it was surrounded by the ugly. Battered, nasty nature, smashed to bits because of what we’ve done in the name of humanity, but if you look hard enough you’ll find a gem in there, hiding away, pretending the ugliness doesn’t exist.’

‘Aiden …’

‘People are suffering out there, Ashleigh, but we never see it. We stay in our beautiful web and that’s our whole world. We’re rich enough to make sure the real, ugly world is kept at a distance. So we can’t be offended by it.’

I could feel tears coming to my eyes and I knew that if I didn’t leave, then things would just become nastier. There was no talking to him and really I didn’t want to listen to the nonsense he was coming out with. He needed rest, I told myself. In a few days he’d be back to normal.

But I didn’t leave, because Dad opened the door from the outside and came in. He washed his hands at the sink.

‘Hi, kids,’ he said.

‘Hey, Dad,’ said Aiden. ‘Got that solar sail gleaming?’ Dad smiled at us over his shoulder.

‘Beautiful and at full efficiency,’ he said. ‘At least the half I’ve done today. I’ll do the other half later, once I get dinner organised.’