I’m not some unreconstructed Neanderthal who thinks women should be barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen. But I am still a man. It feels good when a pretty woman hangs on your every word.

Especially a pretty woman in tears.

Why Kyle Conway is having an affair is beyond me. Harper’s a lovely girl: she works hard, she’s a good mother, and her heart’s in the right place. Why would her idiotic husband risk it all for a quickie with the woman next door?

The poor girl’s heartbroken, and obviously I’m flattered she turned to me for advice. But while I was congratulating myself on navigating the dangerous waters of her daddy issues with skill and care, I took my eye off the ball at home. And now my daughter’s in an ambulance, and my son is a—

—no. Even Peter wouldn’t go that far. He loves his sister. It was an accident.

He didn’t mean to hurt her.

chapter 19

millie

‘Jesus Christ, Tom,’ I say. ‘What’s it going to take for you to see it?’

Tom casts a glance at the medics conferring by the desk along the hall. ‘Keep your voice down,’ he says. ‘We’ll have bloody social services on us.’

‘That might not be a bad thing.’

‘You don’t mean that.’

‘This wasn’t an accident, Tom.’

‘We can’t be sure of that.’

‘Yes, we can,’ I snap.

Tom takes my elbow and steers me down the corridor. ‘OK. Let’s say it wasn’t an accident, Millie,’ he says, keeping his voice low. ‘You think having the kids taken into care would help? This is my fault. I should never have left them alone.’

‘If that magnolia tree hadn’t been there, we’d be standing outside the mortuary right now, not a hospital room.’

‘You don’t have to remind me.’

‘Well, it seems like I do,’ I say.

Tom rubs his hand over his face. His skin is grey. I don’t blame him for not wanting to face it. No parent wants to acknowledge they’ve created a monster.

He’s always got off on my dark side. There’s a sexual element to our dance with my shadow self, an erotic danger. But it’s a whole different ball game now he’s seeing those same traits manifest in our child. Our baby. The same helpless little being with the gummy smile whose nappies he changed and whose back he rubbed to bring up wind.

‘It doesn’t make any sense,’ he says helplessly. ‘If he pushed her, there must be a reason. You don’t do something like this just for the hell of it!’

Surely he’s lived with me long enough to know that’s not true.

The double doors behind us swoosh open, and the triage nurse emerges from the Emergency Department.