Having collected the kids from school at the end of the day, which he’d being doing for a while, with Karla being either out or out of it, Jason ushered them out of the car. He didn’t mind doing the school runs. They were equally his responsibility, and he didn’t have much to do in the office now that Mark was taking over the reins. He worried that Karla couldn’t see the damage this disruption to their routines was doing though. The damage she was doing to her relationship with them. Wondering what the lie of the land was, how Karla was, since he’d left her, still in bed, this morning, he let the kids into the house before him, closed the front door and then swapped surprised glances with Holly and Josh.

‘Mum’s cooking.’ Josh pushed his glasses up his nose and blinked at him, puzzled. Given that Karla had been obvious by her absence from the kitchen lately, Jason understood his confusion.

‘Smells like meatballs,’ Holly whispered worriedly.

Picking up the distinct aroma of garlic, onions and tomatoes, Jason guessed Holly was right. She was preparing the kids’ favourite. Damn. He sighed heavily. She might have rung or texted him. How the hell was he going to tell her they’d already eaten?

‘We’re going to be in deeeep trouble,’ Josh said, in exaggerated tones. Then he glanced sideways at Holly and sliced his hand demonstratively across his throat.

‘Will you grow up,’ Holly snapped irritably, giving him a swift nudge with her elbow.

‘Oi, that hurt.’ Josh scowled and rubbed his assaulted arm. ‘Dad, tell her.’

‘It was supposed to, moron,’ Holly muttered.

‘Kids…’ Jason shot them a warning glance as he dropped their rucksacks onto the hall floor. ‘Now’s not the time.’

‘Sorry,’ Holly said, with an apologetic shrug. ‘What do we do?’ she asked, looking nervously up at him.

‘We could always pretend to eat it,’ Josh suggested helpfully.

Holly rolled her eyes and emitted a heavy sigh of despair. ‘A moron, definitely.’

‘We could take our rucksacks in,’ Josh went on, unperturbed. ‘And feed the meatballs into them, while she’s not looking.’

Holly simply stared at him, astounded.

‘Nice idea, Josh. Not sure what we’d do with the spaghetti though,’ said Jason. He couldn’t help but quietly smile at the image of Josh trying to feed spaghetti surreptitiously into his school bag, but he felt bad for Karla. She was clearly trying to make an effort.

‘Come on,’ he said. ‘Let’s go and say hello. Your mum will be okay. We can always have it for dinner tomorrow.’

Holly didn’t look that convinced, but she nodded maturely and urged Josh on to the kitchen.

Karla turned from the pan at the stove as they went in. ‘Hi, guys,’ she said, smiling. ‘Good day at school?’

’Normal,’ Josh replied with a shrug.