‘Faith would walk away if Justine was there. It’s going to be hard enough persuading her to listen to me, and if I get this wrong, it won’t be Nick she cuts out of her life.’

The sense of foreboding lay heavily on Tara’s chest and pressed down harder when she picked up the last plate to be scraped clean. It was another untouched meal, only this one belonged to Molly. ‘Do you think I should be worried about Molly too?’ she asked, registering Iain’s earlier comment.

‘She didn’t say a word when I picked her up from school today. Considering she’s the one who usually keeps us buoyed, I don’t like to see her down.’

‘Me neither,’ Tara said, biting her lip. Since the fundraiser, she hadn’t given her family much thought, having been on the phone to April every chance she could get. So much for making Iain and the girls her priority.

‘Here, I’ll take that,’ Iain said, pulling the plate from Tara’s hand. ‘You go and sort things out.’

There was laughter coming from the living room, but Lily was on her own watching cartoons so Tara continued her search upstairs. She knocked once on Molly’s bedroom door before stepping inside to find her daughter lying on her stomach with her head pressed into her pillow.

‘What?’ Molly demanded, voice muffled.

Tara’s heart clenched when she saw her daughter rub her eyes against the pillowcase before looking up. She had seen Molly cry before, but it was the first time she had tried to hide her tears.

Sitting down on the edge of the bed, Tara went to touch Molly’s leg but her daughter scrambled backwards and wedged herself into a corner.

‘You can’t escape me,’ Tara said.

Molly glared. ‘I know I can’t. The room’s too small.’

‘Is that what this is about?’ asked Tara, feeling the first stirrings of frustration. ‘Look, sweet pea—’

‘I’m not your sweet pea any more. Lily is!’

The term of affection had once been reserved exclusively for Molly, but Tara had started using it with Lily too. She had seen it as progress. ‘Molly, you’re my daughter. You mean more to me than anything.’

‘Not enough to get me a dog.’

‘That’s unfair,’ Tara said. ‘I was ready to get a pet and if you hadn’t been so stroppy, we could have been bringing a kitten home soon.’

‘A kitten,’ Molly repeated. ‘Because that was what Lily wanted. Everyone treats her like she’s special because she lost her mum, but I lost my dad too.’

Tara scooted along the bed and took hold of Molly’s hand whether she liked it or not. ‘I know it must look as if she’s getting special treatment, but you’ve seen how hard it’s been for her, and we couldn’t have got this far without you.’