Ruth stayed for a week and by the end of it I couldn’t believe I’d thought the house tense with just the five of us in it. She got up at five every day to pray, catching me several times with Madison’s morning sheets. I made an excuse about this being my laundry time, ‘before the kids wake up’, but her shrewd eyes raked over me, suspicious. Before each meal we had to say grace, even if the kids were hungry and Carson was howling at the delay. She insisted on me driving her places, various out-of-the-way malls, shops right in the centre of Hollywood where there was no parking, obscure churches. When I ventured that four in the afternoon was a bad time to try and cross the city, she would widen her eyes and declare it nonsense. If I came downstairs in shorts or a vest, she would say, ‘Casey, dear, I hope you don’t mind a little advice. You’re a young girl in a house with a man – it might be sensible to dress a little more . . . ladylike.’ I ignored it, though the shame burned in me.

When I told Jenna about it on the phone, she was fuming. ‘Jealous old bitch. Bet she’s not much to look at, is she?’

‘Not really,’ I said, then making myself feel better by slagging off Ruth’s hair, her weight, her clothes. All the ways women tear each other down.

On Ruth’s last night in the house, Abby had organised a special goodbye meal on the pool terrace. She had been strangely quiet all week, not snapping at me or the kids as usual. She had been on her best behaviour, allowing Ruth to give her ‘a little advice’ as well, about everything from the right way to dress a salad to how to wear her hair – That colour is too harsh on you, sweetie, people can tell it’s dyed. Abby had gone all out, or rather, made me go all out. I’d hauled bags from the supermarket until the paper handles ate into my palms. I’d shelled prawns and sliced fruit and arranged platters and searched high cupboards for dishes, dodging the spiders. Abby had even sent me into the untidy garage to find some folding chairs. By the end of the day I was sticky, exhausted, my arms aching, bruises on my legs. Abby wrinkled her nose at me and said I had time to shower if I was quick.