‘Well, about bloody time,’ I shout as I turn the engine back on. It’s been the longest fifteen minutes I’ve ever experienced and during this time I’ve run through several scenarios about where she could’ve taken them. I’ve rung Barb’s mobile a dozen times and each time it’s gone to voicemail. I leave a light and breezy message asking where she, Finley and Leo are. I don’t think Barb would take the boys to her bungalow – it’s a bit far out and she doesn’t drive, so would have to get a bus or taxi. I’m not quite sure what she’s playing at by randomly picking Finley and Leo up from school without even speaking to me first, but I’m beginning to feel she’s got an agenda. With Leo saying his nanna had told him she’s coming with us to Kent, and now this – I’m contemplating the possibility that she’s trying to get into their heads; manipulate them so they beg me not to leave Stockwood or something. I’m being mean, really, thinking Barb would be underhand in this way. She’s not a bad person.

But she is a desperate one.

I tap my palm against my forehead as though that’ll dispel the thought. I’ll be back home, all being well, in the next ten minutes, then my mind will be at rest when I see them all waiting for me at the front of the house.

Then I might ring Nick and tell him how his mother is bloody interfering.

She’s always interfered to an extent, though. Particularly in the early days. It began after the first seven months of being together, when it looked like me and Nick were becoming serious about each other. She’d been all sweetness and light up until that point – especially once she found out my parents had been killed in a car accident when I was eighteen. She’d happily have me over for meals and let me stay most nights. Her attitude cooled, though, when she realised I might be a permanent fixture in Nick’s life. In her life. It had taken at least eighteen months of hard work on my part to coax her, get her to come around to the idea Nick didn’t need her as much as he needed me. She felt replaced. I get that – it can’t be easy. No doubt I’ll have all that to come with my own boys.