‘Three months,’ her mum answered in a strangled voice. ‘That’s all we’ve got. Three months.’

Chapter 3

Zara looked around the bare rooms of her new house. It was only two weeks since that phone call from her mum, telling her it was time to come home.

Not just time to come home, she was needed at home.

‘I need you here,’ was what her mum had said. ‘I can’t do this by myself.’

Zara didn’t remember much about the rest of that day. Only that Liz had put her in the car and driven her home. She’d stayed, ordered takeaway and sat with Zara while she alternated between crying and ranting about the unfairness of it all.

‘He’s only twenty-seven! How could this happen? And especially after we’ve lost Dad. What, are all the Ellison men cursed or something?

‘I still dream about it,’ Zara said, hiccupping with sobs. ‘I’ve never told you, but I was coming home from uni for the weekend and Dad texted to say he was going to be in Barker when I came through. He wanted me to call in and have dinner with him. It was his and Mum’s twenty-fifth wedding anniversary and he wanted me to help organise a surprise for her. He was planning to take her to Singapore.’ She stopped there and had another cry. ‘Will was supposed to be there as well, but in the end Dad had to enlist his help to keep Mum busy, because she wanted to come in and have dinner too.’ She wiped her face and groaned as if in pain, leaning forward with her arms wrapped around her. ‘Will,’ she muttered, ‘why has this all happened?’

Liz rubbed her back and started to pack a bag for her, while Zara stayed sitting on the bed, tears running down her cheeks.

‘He wasn’t there,’ she told Liz, finally looking up at her. ‘Wasn’t at the pub when I got there. I tried to ring Will and Mum but I couldn’t get them, so I drove home. I thought maybe the plans had changed.’ She shook her head as Liz stopped folding the clothes and sat down beside her again. ‘Wishful thinking. When I drove around a corner near home, I found Dad.’ She wiped at her eyes. ‘I saw his ute on its roof. Crushed in on top of him …’ Her voice trailed off and she sat staring into the distance, and really there was nothing more to say. Her dad was dead, and her brother was going to be dead too very soon.

‘Will’s my safety blanket,’ she told Liz. ‘The first person I call when things are going right—and when they’re not. Dad’s death brought us closer together, all of us, not just Will and me, but Mum too. We’ve got the “fam bam” WhatsApp group going, sending each other text messages and jokes. We hear from each other every day …’ Her voice trailed off again and, finally, she couldn’t talk anymore.