‘They’re great,’ I told him, giving him a huge hug.

Caitlin looked happy. As I took a sip of my tea, I sat and thought about Mum again. I couldn’t remember the last time she had bought a gift for me, other than when it was my birthday or Christmas. Once upon a time, she would always buy me cool clothes and jewellery and things. These days she couldn’t even make it to my basketball games, couldn’t even afford to keep up the mortgage repayments on our house.

‘Hey Dad, there’s something I need to tell you.’

‘What is it, bub?’ he said, leaning back into his armchair and putting his hands behind his head.

I looked to Caitlin. She nodded for me to go ahead so I said, ‘Dad, Mum lost her licence.’

Dad sipped his tea as he was making sense of what I’d told him. ‘Really? Well, that’s not your fault Phoebe, and maybe it’s not such as bad thing. If it’s because of drink driving, maybe it will teach Bronwyn a lesson.’

Dad took another sip. I was relieved that I’d told him and surprised about how cool he was about it. I also agreed with Dad that Mum losing her licence was probably for the better. It was scary, thinking about Mum being drunk behind a wheel, especially after I’d seen her recklessness first-hand.

‘Pheebs, I’m really sorry that I wasn’t here for you this week,’ Dad said.

‘It’s okay. Mum was supposed to be here for me.’

Dad took my hand. ‘Still … I hope you know that if things were any more serious that I would have been home straightaway?’

‘Yeah, I know. And I’m really sorry that I didn’t tell you about Mum losing her licence earlier.’

‘How could you have?’ Dad asked and then I realised that he must’ve thought that Mum had only just lost her licence.

I sat there, silent, although I couldn’t hide my discomfort.

He tried to be calm, but there was anger already growing in his voice when he said, ‘Phoebe, did Mum lose her licence this week or has it been a while?’

I looked to Caitlin to save me. She moved over and sat on the edge of Dad’s armchair, putting her arm around his shoulder.

‘Phoebe has known for a while, about a month or so,’ Caitlin told him.

‘A month!’ he said, raising his voice and it was like I could feel my brain bang up against the inside of my skull again.

‘Mark, I promised Phoebe you wouldn’t get upset,’ Caitlin tried reasoning with Dad.