Sara huffed. ‘Chance would be a fine thing. It’s not something we can afford at the moment. And I’m fine, thanks.’ She gave her sister a watery smile. ‘Honestly. It’s just a new routine, that’s all. With all the changes, it’s taking time to settle into the swing of things.’

Hailey finished her tea and stood up. ‘Well, I’ll get out of your hair.’ She slung her bag over her shoulder and grinned. ‘See you at football practice on Thursday.’

Sara watched her go, so many concerns filling her head, all the unanswered questions building up to create an almighty headache. She got up and found some paracetamol in the cupboard, swallowed them down and massaged her temples.

As a mother, she’d always been at the heart of her family, but since Matt had started his business and she’d been working full-time, she felt on the edge of everything, out of touch with her family’s lives.

Something’s going to change, she promised herself.

Chapter Thirteen

Once the paracetamol had begun to take effect and her headache had subsided, Sara was clearer about how to put her world to rights. She was not going to do anything too confrontational, nothing up-front and accusatory, even though a voice in her head was shouting at her to ask her family over their evening meal what the bloody hell was going on and why none of them were talking to her about it.

She would bide her time, wait for the right moment.

Typically, the girls and Matt disappeared as soon as they’d eaten, while she was still struggling to get Ezra to finish off the last of his vegetables. Once he was settled in bed, though, she popped her head round the door of the girls’ room, where they were lying on the floor watching something on the laptop.

She noticed their wide eyes, the shocked expressions when they saw her in the doorway, before Amelia tapped a few keys and slammed the laptop shut. Sara frowned. What were they watching? They had parental controls on the internet, but she was never sure how effective they were. The girls seemed to be addicted to YouTube, people playing practical jokes and doing weird tricks. Or they watched football training. That was what they told her anyway.

‘Mum, you can’t just walk in,’ Sophia snapped. ‘You’ve got to knock!’

Amelia’s face was blotchy – red round the eyes like she’d been crying – and she turned away, got up and started tidying the clothes that lay strewn all over her bed. She was the messy one. Sophia was the opposite. Two halves of a whole.

‘Since when?’ Sara asked, hands on her hips. This was the first she’d heard of it, and she objected to Sophia’s tone of voice.

‘Since we stopped being little girls,’ Sophia said, sitting back on her heels.