‘I didn’t get much chance to read it yet. Listen, you could come over, if you wanted? To have a look at the house, I mean.’ I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before. Miranda believes in witchcraft and ghosts. If she visited me at the house, maybe she would feel the same unsettling feelings that I do. Maybe she would see movement in the mirror when she looks at her reflection. I could show her the bones.

‘No, I’m not sure—’

‘Miranda, are you telling Allie your good news?’ Tara’s voice calls shrilly, piercing above the other women’s voices and interrupting me before Miranda gets a chance to reply.

Miranda opens her mouth, but before she can speak Tara butts in. ‘Miranda is pregnant again, Allie. Isn’t that wonderful news?’

I glance towards the small child on Miranda’s lap. I can’t remember if it’s a boy or a girl, but it can’t be much more than ten months old. ‘Wow. Congratulations.’

‘Thanks.’ Miranda cheek’s flush red again and I realize she hates being the subject of Tara’s attention just as much as I do.

‘Let’s hope it’s just as easy as when Arlo popped out, eh?’ Tara raises her mug in a toast and so begins a whole conversation of birth stories, something I am definitely not comfortable sharing with a bunch of women I barely know.

Mina’s birth was a breeze – everything was textbook perfect from the moment I felt the first contraction until they laid her on my chest, tiny hands curled into fists, lusty cries pouring from her angry, red face. She was beautiful. Rav had cried a little, and then FaceTimed Avó (something I wasn’t fully on board with, but I was too exhausted to say so), and after kissing me repeatedly and gazing in wonder at the tiny creature we created, he left, and the room emptied of nurses and it was just us. Me and my tiny daughter.

‘Allie, what about you?’ Karen is saying and I look up with a start. Mina is holding a chocolate cornflake cake in one hand, chocolate smeared across one cheek.

‘Oh no, you don’t want to hear about that.’ I shake my head, reaching into the nappy bag for a wipe to clean Mina’s face, rummaging longer than necessary in the hopes that they’ll move on to someone else.

‘Come on, Allie, we’re all sharing,’ Tara says loudly. ‘We’ve all been through it. Nothing none of us haven’t heard before.’

It seems Tara is not going to take no for an answer. ‘Tara, I’d really rather not …’

‘Pfffh.’ She flaps her hand. ‘Don’t be silly, we’re all friends here.’