‘Get the coffee on,’ Hailey said as she headed for the kitchen. ‘And stop trying to cover things up.’ She dumped her bag on the floor and pulled out a chair at the table, looked at her watch. ‘I’ve got a meeting in… about half an hour.’

Sara busied herself getting mugs from the cupboard, milk from the fridge. ‘I’m not covering things up,’ she said with a little laugh, as if the idea was ridiculous.

Hailey snorted, then her expression softened. She brushed a hand over her short, spiky hair, which was naturally ginger but currently dyed magenta – a striking contrast with her pale complexion. ‘Come on, get your fancy machine going and tell me what’s up.’ She tilted her head, slate-grey eyes assessing her little sister. ‘I can tell when something’s bothering you.’

Sara leant a hip against the worktop while the coffee machine gurgled and hissed its way through its cycle, wondering what to say, whether Hailey would think she was being stupid. She turned and gave her a sheepish smile. ‘I think you’re here under false pretences. Just me being tired, you know, with all these early starts, and now that I’m working…’

Hailey’s job took her to the heart of troubled families and she was a keen observer of human behaviour. She could tell when people were lying, but would never judge. Not when she’d had such a difficult childhood herself. She knew things went wrong, that people made mistakes then had to live with them. She knew that just because a child might be neglected it didn’t mean they weren’t loved. She of all people understood complexity and was absolutely the best person to talk to about problems. But Sara felt awkward laying her marriage bare for somebody else to inspect, even if that somebody was her sister.

She took the first full mug from the machine and set it going to make a second one. How much should I tell her? she wondered, then caught her sister’s eye as she placed her coffee on the table and made a decision.

‘He’s never home, Hailey. Always working late.’ She hesitated, eyes firmly on the floor. ‘It’s not just that, though. When he is home, he’s always on his computer. Very secretive, like he’s chatting to someone, you know?’ She swallowed, a swell of emotion taking her by surprise, and when she spoke again, her voice was little more than a whisper. ‘He doesn’t see me any more. It’s like I’m invisible. The housekeeper, here to look after him and the kids. I don’t feel like we’re a partnership. That closeness we had – it’s gone.’

Hailey stared at her, mouth gaping in astonishment. ‘Are you kidding? That man thinks the sun shines out of your arse.’

Sara huffed and went to get the second mug of coffee from the machine. ‘No, he doesn’t.’