‘I’m not letting anything happen,’ Dad said defensively.

‘How many times are you going to put Phoebe in situations where she’s let down and put in danger?’

‘I’m not doing that!’

‘You are,’ Caitlin said, her voice getting louder before she dropped it down to something more like a whisper. ‘You’re the one that needs to put a stop to this. Bronwyn is going to keep doing the same thing she’s always done if you don’t act.’

‘She’s going through a hard time. We’ve just moved away from her,’ Dad said and I gave him credit for that.

‘You’re defending her again, Mark. She was a drunk when you were married and you’re still enabling her.’ Although I didn’t really know what enabling meant, I still felt like jumping out of bed and yelling at Caitlin. She was talking about Mum like she was a loser.

My mum isn’t a loser. She’s the best event organiser in Adelaide. Everyone is her friend. She always gets me tickets to all of the best concerts and once she even took me to New York for my birthday to watch the Spurs play against the Knicks. She played top-level basketball back in the day, same as Dad. She’s so not a loser!

‘I’m not enabling her, Cait, and I won’t rip Phoebe away from her mother, not with my background, not thinking about all of my mob who were stolen from their parents. And anyway, with the settlement on the house almost about to go through, do you think it’s really the time to get another lawyer involved?’

‘You need to stop her from drink driving with Phoebe in the car,’ Caitlin persisted and I got up out of bed, my legs shaking like I’d run a hundred sprints.

‘I’m awake, you know!’ I screamed and slammed my door. I buried my head under the pillows.

About an hour later, Mum finally answered her phone.

‘Hi sweetie,’ she said.

‘Are you okay, Mum? You got home okay?’

‘Of course I did.’

‘You weren’t pulled over or anything?’

‘Oh Phoebe, of course not,’ Mum said and I breathed a sigh of relief. ‘You know I wish I was there to tuck you in, babe. You know I love you so much.’

‘Mum,’ I said, nervous about saying what I wanted to tell her.

‘What, sweetie?’

‘Dad and Caitlin are talking about not letting me see you.’

‘Why the hell not?!’

‘You haven’t checked your messages? Dad found out about the crash.’ Mum went silent. ‘I didn’t tell him. Katie must have told her parents.’

‘Phoebe, there’s no way he’s going to stop me seeing you. I’ll talk to your father when he cools down. And don’t worry about Caitlin. She’s never been a mother. She doesn’t understand.’

‘Do you promise?’

‘I promise,’ she said, voice cracking. ‘Now try to get some sleep, sweetie.’

I drifted off to sleep thinking about Mum cooling things down with Dad, wishing that she would tell him that she would stop drinking and actually keep her word. I mean, she didn’t drink that much. All of my friends’ parents loved their champagne or whatever. Everyone drank in The Village, too. I’d only been there for about a month and there’d already been five wine and food festivals. Mum’s drinking wasn’t a big deal. Right?