“I know,” Bella says, sitting next to me. “Every time I walk into a room and she’s there, I get a jolt of surprise. It’s not like our house anymore.” She sighs. “And now we’ve got Jack and Sean as well and that’s going to be just weird. Is this going to be a regular thing? Is she going to insist they spend Christmas here?”

I shudder at the thought.

“We have to do something about it,” she says.

“Like what?”

“I don’t know. Make their lives so miserable they all want to leave?”

“What about Dad? He likes her.” He loves her, I think, but I can’t say those words out loud.

There’s a knock on the door and Julia pokes her head round. “Hey, girls,” she says. “Are you going to come out and say hello to Jack and Sean?”

Bella ignores her, but I can’t, so I reluctantly get up and follow her out. They’re sitting on the twin beds Dad set up in Bella’s room, bags at their feet, still wearing their coats.

“Oh look, it’s our new sister,” Jack says in his drawling voice, and I feel myself blushing. Sean doesn’t say anything. He glances at me and away, a frown on his face.

Julia sighs. “Be nice, Jack.” She says this but she walks away, leaving me alone in the room with the boys.

Jack laughs and pats the space on the bed next to him. “Come and sit down, sister Tess,” he says. “Let’s get cozy. I’ll be nice, I promise.”

“Hey,” he calls as I back out of the room. “On second thought, send the hot sister in—I’ll be extra nice to her.”

Sean follows me as I escape downstairs, stopping me in the hall with a hand on my arm.

“What do you want?” I almost shout it. “Why are you even here? It’s not like you’re kids who need babysitting while your dad’s out of town.”

“I was going to explain about Jack,” he says stiffly in his posh private school accent. “He didn’t want to be here—I persuaded him because I thought it might be a good idea to mend some bridges, to actually be here full-time for a few days. Clearly, you’re not of the same opinion.”

“No, I’m not. And neither is Bella,” I say, shaking him off, my eyes hot with tears I’m determined not to shed. “We don’t want you here. None of you. I wish you and your bloody mother would fuck off and leave us alone. How do you think your poor dad’s going to feel when he gets back to find us all here playing happy families while he’s on his own? It’s sick. It’s wrong.”

He shakes his head and steps away from me. “My poor dad? Jesus, you as well?”