Her voice cracked. “I mean . . . you know this is a very hard time for me.”

She had applied for so many jobs, but without a degree or any qualifications, she wasn’t having any luck at all, unless she wanted to be either an exotic dancer or a delivery driver. Carmen was not a hundred percent sure which of these she’d be worse at.

She waited for her parents to spring to her defense as they always did, to say she was going through a bad patch and that the shop closing obviously wasn’t her fault, that she deserved a bit of down time to recover from the blow.

Neither of them said anything. Her father stared at the floor. Her mother looked miserable but didn’t open her mouth.

“You all think I’m being a brat,” said Carmen, devastated.

“No, chica,” said her mother. “It’s just . . . We just want to see you on your feet and . . .”

“You think I’m wasting my life.”

“No life is wasted,” said her father, but it had sounded like an empty platitude in the tidy, tiny kitchen.

I WILL BE nice. I will be grateful, Carmen said to herself as she finally pulled herself onto the correct street.

She’d been sent pictures of the house, but Carmen had never really paid attention, just assuming it would be big and posh and stupid. She didn’t expect it to be all of those things, but also heartbreakingly adorable.

Chapter Five

Sofia felt nervous and trepidatious answering the door. This was ridiculous, she told herself. It was her sister. They could be close. Other people were close to their sisters! She wished Federico were here and not in Hong Kong. He was good with Carmen—at teasing her and bringing out her fun side and not prodding her sensitive spots, namely how she compared with Sofia and how skint she was. Still, at least Carmen would be slimmer than her for once. Sofia took a lot of care over her food and working out, while Carmen ate a lot of pizza and moaned that Sofia was “lucky.”

And their mother, while being quietly thrilled, had pledged that she wasn’t going to interfere or contact them. It was really for her own sanity: she couldn’t handle them on the phone every five minutes complaining about the other one. She would miss her grandchildren—she doted on them—but maybe this would be the spur Carmen needed to get to know her own family.

She very much hoped so.