THE WIND HAS DROPPED, AND TENTATIVE SUNLIGHT CREEPS INTO the kitchen. It’s a huge room, easily as big as Oli’s former apartment, with large glass doors running the length of the back wall, showcasing the tall fruit trees that border the neat backyard. Wisteria drips lilac from the eaves, and the blossom on the trees has the entire garden buzzing with insects. Appliances gleam from their positions around the room, an island bench cutting diagonally across the centre of the space, its waterfall of marble flowing into the bone-white tiles.

Dean’s house is nestled in the heart of Camberwell, where the streets are wide grand affairs lined with spreading plane trees and manicured nature strips. The houses are not unlike their owners: classic structures that have been given new life with a few layers of paint or, more often than not, comprehensive renovations.

Despite the relative proximity, it feels like a world away from Oli’s old place in Brunswick.

Amy and Kate sit at the round table in the corner, their chatter mixing with the rich timbre of Channel Nine’s morning news anchor from the TV that hangs on the far wall.

‘Shhhhh, girls.’ Oli cranes her neck around the vase of white tulips on the bench.

The twins ignore her, so she finds the remote and turns up the volume, trying to piece together the story with what she can see of the news package while she adds chopped fruit and kale to the yoghurt in the blender. She gives up on listening and starts the blender, the deep buzz blocking out the girls’ babble. On the TV, a female reporter is standing outside the Melbourne Town Hall. Oli turns off the blender and pours the green liquid into two glasses.

‘Yes, that’s right,’ the reporter is saying, ‘today we’ll find out whether former Premier John O’Brien will face criminal charges in regard to the allegations made against him, which include awarding significant government contracts to associates, the sexual assault of two staff members, and threatening a junior staff member with violence and reputational damage as a means of coercing him into illegal activity.’

The news cuts to an edited sequence of the former premier in happier times, shaking hands and drinking beer at a charity event. His bald, slightly peanut-shaped head used to seem endearing to Oli, giving him a slightly goofy vibe, but she has now seen enough of him off camera and under pressure to know his temperament is anything but friendly.

The footage cuts back to the studio where an image is superimposed behind the anchor’s left shoulder, a generic hospital scene with the words DANGEROUS DOCTORS layered over the top. ‘At this stage it’s unknown if …’

If what? Oli thinks, as Kate makes a strange shriek.

Sighing, Oli pops a blueberry in her mouth and carries the girls’ scrambled eggs to the table.