“Yeah,” Lena says, grabbing the hand that Julia lets fall from Max’s face. “It’s fucking shit. But we can help, can’t we, Tess? Paint your nails, do your hair, get some color on your face.”

I perch on the arm of the bench. “If that’s what Julia wants, of course we can.”

“Who doesn’t want a free pamper session?”

I look to Julia for an answer but instead she just says, “Oh, it’s so good to see you all here.” She leans her head against my shoulder. Lena’s still holding her hand and Max is crouched down in front of her.

Dad comes out of the house then and Lena waves at him. “Hey, Leo, come and join the party. I was about to break open the Prosecco.”

Dad’s face lights up at the sound of Julia’s laughing response and I’m glad—even with the woods looming up around me—so very glad I came.

I go in to help Dad make tea, leaving Julia laughing with Max and Lena. He smiles at them out of the window as he waits for the kettle to boil. “This is what I hoped for,” he says. “Look how happy she is to see you all again.”

I wrap my arms around myself, watching him put teabags in the old brown pot we’ve had forever, steam rising as he pours in boiling water.

“She really loves Max and Lena, doesn’t she?” I say.

“She practically brought them up after their dad accepted his job abroad.”

“At least they’re here for her. Not like her own sons.”

Dad shrugs. “They don’t carry the same resentment as Jack and Sean. It was always Julia rather than Greg they were close to.”

I haven’t seen Jack or Sean since the wedding, when they were witness to Bella’s death. They’re tainted with it, covered in the leaves and mud and death that covered my sister. I hoped, when I left home, never to have to see them again.

“She told me she wishes they were here,” I say.

Dad turns away from the window and pours the tea. “Sean’s here.”

“What?”

“He’s at Dean House.”

I think of that sense of being followed earlier. Was it Sean? Watching me?

“How do you know?”

“I saw him going in. I went to speak to him, but he’s refusing to visit. I haven’t told Julia he’s in the village. It’s bad enough they won’t return my calls, but if she found out Sean was here and still not visiting…”

My hands shake as I put my mug down, and tea spills on the table. “Those fucking boys,” I say. “Jesus—the last thing I want is them back in the house, but can’t they even give her this? After all this time, they can’t even visit her once before she dies?”

“Tess…”