Instead she sat down at the kitchen island, shoulders slumped as if the weight of life was too much to carry. “Caitlin, if a stranger who you hadn’t invited into your room, went in and destroyed the things you love, would you be upset?”

Caitlin had paused. “That’s different.”

“It’s not different. The insurance company sent someone round to assess the damage yesterday, and it’s going to cost thousands of pounds to put right.”

“That’s crazy. It’s a scam.”

“It’s reality. Your ‘friends’ left the tap running in the downstairs bathroom, and the water flowed into the hallway, causing irreparable damage to the wooden floor. There are cigarette burns on the sofa in the living room, and wine stains on the carpet. The glass in the patio doors is cracked. And none of this is counting the damage done to our relationship with Mr. and Mrs. Brooks next door. I feel so embarrassed I can hardly face them. Apparently one of your so-called ‘friends’ used their front garden to relieve himself.”

Caitlin looked less sure of herself. “I don’t know anything about that.”

“You were responsible for caring for this property.”

“I didn’t know they were going to invite a ton of people I didn’t know!” There was a note of panic in her voice.

“That happens when you share details of a party on social media.”

Caitlin was a little paler. “I didn’t do that.”

“Someone did, and you need to find out who. And you need to ask yourself some serious questions about your friendship with that person.”

“Oh why don’t you just say it?” Guilt made Caitlin more fractious than usual. “You think it’s Jane. I bet you’re hoping it is Jane because then you’ll have an excuse to keep her out of my life. You’ve hated Jane from the beginning. Just because she’s a year older and really cool. But I’m old enough to make my own choices about my friends.”

“You’re not making your own choices,” Liza said. “You’re following her choices. That’s what worries me. You’re going along with everything she does and says, even though it goes against your own values. If you are old enough to make choices, you’re also old enough to take responsibility.”

Sean had walked into the room at that point and immediately left again.

Kathleen had caught Liza’s look of frustration as she opened her mouth to call him back and then thought better of it.

Strange, Kathleen had thought, that they hadn’t handled it together. A united front.

And then she remembered all the times she’d been absent, traveling somewhere exotic, leaving Brian to handle all those small family crises himself.