‘You’re a good girl,’ Mum says, I think she’s talking to me at first, but it’s Olea she’s looking at as she strokes her wet hair. We stand around Kristoffer and Olea in a semi-circle, Mum, Stein and me, and the others are all looking at me, they’re looking at me, all four of them, as if they’re 133waiting for me to say something, but I say nothing, I don’t know what to say. I look up to try to stop myself from crying, see the white cabin wall, the roof tiles and eaves, we’ve had a wasps’ nest there a few times over the years. Kristoffer stands up with Olea in his arms, he says it’s time to get her out of her wet clothes, her teeth are chattering. He promises her sweets and she asks him if she needs to clean her teeth and he tells her that she can skip it tonight.

‘You need to apologise properly, Ida,’ Mum says.

‘I didn’t do it on purpose,’ I say.

Stein raises his eyebrows at me and smiles weakly, I look away.

A little later on, I peek into the bedroom as Kristoffer is putting Olea to bed. I hear them chatting quietly in the half-darkness. Kristoffer gets up out of the bed when he sees me, we stand in the doorway whispering.

‘I don’t think you should be here right now,’ he says.

‘I just want to talk to Olea,’ I tell him.

‘She doesn’t want to talk to you,’ he says. ‘So just stop.’

‘I’m sure she won’t mind if I have a quick word with her,’ I say.

‘Do you know what?’ Kristoffer says, stepping out into the hallway where I’m standing and closing the door behind him. ‘Olea and I are the ones who are family here. You’re not a part of that. I’m not going to lay into Marthe the way you do, and you need to understand when it’s time to keep your fucking distance. OK?’ 134

‘You don’t want that baby,’ I say, it comes out like a hiss.

He says nothing, simply shakes his head and returns to Olea. I can see her in the bed, she locks eyes with me and turns to face the wall. Kristoffer sits on the edge of her bed and looks at me until I give up and close the door.

135

Chapter 19