‘Look at you! I suppose you’ve got a red hat and all? What’s the saying, Bri? Red hat, no drawers? That certainly sounds like you, don’t it?

‘Tell me, who beat up Evander? You? I wouldn’t put it past you. You’re like a man, do you know that? You think like a man, you act like a man, no wonder Tommy Lane dumped you. It must have been like living with a queer. Two men together, only one wore a dress.’

The barb about Tommy struck home as Kerry knew it would. As she’d wanted it to. She wanted Briony to hurt, as she was hurting.

‘You’re quiet all of a sudden, normally your mouth’s going like the clappers. What’s the matter? Truth hurts, does it?’

Bernadette tried to take Kerry’s arm but she shrugged her off.

‘Leave me alone, you!’

‘Sit down, Kerry. Sit down, for Christ’s sake.’

Briony’s voice, so calm, so clear, jolted something in Kerry’s mind.

‘Don’t you tell me what to do, you vicious bitch! You’ve ruined my life. Me and Evander was going away. I had a job lined up in Paris, I was going to tell you to stick your club right up your arse. We would have been all right there, me and him. But no, you had to have him removed, taken away, like so much rubbish. Well, let me tell you something else, Briony Cavanagh, I’m pregnant!’ She laughed at the look of shock on her sisters’ faces.

‘Yes, thought that might give you a start. I’m in the club, up the duff, by a blackie. And shall I tell you something? I’m proud of it. I hope it’s as black as night! I hope it’s so black it shines! So what are you going to do about that, Bri, eh? How are you going to sort this out? You know, all your threats and all your money and all your trapping can do nothing at all because I want it. I really, really want it. Especially now you’ve driven my Evander away. It’s all I’ll have left of him, ain’t it? All that remains.’

Briony heard a loud sighing noise, and it was a few seconds before she realised it was coming from herself. It was as if Kerry had stuck a pin in her chest and she was deflating slowly.

Kerry laughed at her sister’s reaction.

‘That’s pissed all over your fireworks, hasn’t it?’ She rubbed her belly gently. ‘Never banked on that one, did you?’