Twisted, yeah? Well, you didn’t think anything in my world was going to be straight, did you?

I reckon you might be asking where she is now, today, so I’ll tell you. She’s still in the same house, on that shitty estate, struggling to hold down a job and pay the rent and feed herself. She knows where I am and she comes as often as she can, which probably isn’t a good idea, but it’s hard to stop her. So, Dan, when you read this, back off her, please. Leave her alone and let her get on with her life, miserable as it is. You can’t fix her, it’s beyond even you, but nice of you to want to try.

Actually, that’s about all I have to say about her. She means as much to me as yours does—or did—to you (don’t know if she’s still with us). It’s just we’re different sorts of people and there are a lot out there who think that those like me and my ma don’t have the same sort of feelings. Or consciences, or morals, or understanding of anything outside the warped and dangerous world we live in. We are the dregs and you are the cream and what’s happening to you now is proof of what we already know, that society cares about your sort a lot more than it does about mine. That’s not me getting defensive, or feeling sorry for myself, that’s just me telling it as it is.

Chapter Twenty

“Excited?”

Claudia was many things at that moment and, yes, excited was definitely one of them. She glanced over at her mother in the driver’s seat and felt such a rush of happiness that she broke into a laugh. “Of course. Are you?” she asked.

Marcy’s eyes were shining. “We have a lot to feel excited about,” she replied. “We’re on our way to spend the first night in our new home; Jasmine’s rehearsals for the upcoming concert are wowing everyone the closer it gets; and you have finally agreed to go on a date with Dan.”

Claudia spluttered a protest. “It’s not a date!” she cried. “I just invited him to join us for our little moving-in party later. It would have been unforgivable not to when everyone else is coming, and anyway, we want him to be there.”

“Of course we do, but it’s been quite a while since you found out the artist Julie Forrest is married to one of the big landowners around here, who was also at the New Year’s Eve ball, so you could have cut poor Dan some slack before now.”