‘Peter …’

‘No, Jo,’ Peter cut her off. ‘I want to know why you haven’t been in touch. Have you any idea how upset your mother’s been? How upset I’ve been, for that matter?’

I wished I could see his face, to see the anguish that was evident in his voice. Good. He deserved to suffer.

‘I’m sorry,’ Ben replied quickly. ‘We’ve been so busy with the baby. Time ran away from me.’

‘Rubbish!’ Peter spat. ‘You forget that we’ve had two children ourselves and yes, it’s hard work, but it’s also possible to find time to make a bloody phone-call! How could you have left it for so long? Do you have any idea how hurtful that was?’

In one movement, I opened the bedroom door and stepped over the hallway into the living room.

‘It was because of me,’ I said, making them all jump visibly. Jo and Peter both swung around to look at me simultaneously and both of them gave a half-gasp. Peter’s eyes met mine and for a second, I could see the confusion, as lust fought against his already dwindling anger. It had been worth putting in so much effort to look as good as possible.

‘I didn’t want Ben to contact you. I’m sorry,’ I continued, aiming for calm, yet vulnerable. ‘I was just so hurt by what happened at Christmas and …’

‘Of course you were!’ Jo leaped out of her seat and for one awful moment, I thought she was going to hug me, so I wrapped my arms around my body defensively, hoping to ward her off.

It seemed to work and she stepped back slightly. ‘I am so sorry for what I said, Bella. It was in the heat of the moment and I was feeling very stressed after Emma’s accident …’

I nodded and adopted a stoic expression. ‘It’s fine. Let’s forget about it.’

Jo nodded eagerly. ‘Thank you!’ she trilled. ‘How are you, Bella? You look truly amazing! I can’t believe how quickly you’ve got your figure back.’

I smiled. All the hard work had paid off. I had barely eaten for weeks. ‘Apparently my mum was the same with me. Lucky, genes, I guess,’ I said breezily before twisting the knife a bit more. ‘She says Elodie’s identical to me as a baby so hopefully she’s inherited them, too.’

My words landed and Jo swallowed hard. The truth was, my mum hadn’t been around that much either recently because she drove me mad, but Jo didn’t need to know that.

She blinked quickly, as if to squeeze away any tears that might be threatening. ‘And what’s she like? Elodie, I mean? I can’t wait to see her.’

I could tell she was treading on eggshells, unsure if I would take anything she said the wrong way. I decided to be beneficent for once. After all, I didn’t want any of them thinking I was an unreasonable bitch.

‘She’s perfect. She’ll be up in a little while but you can have a peep at her if you like?’