He sighs and runs a hand through his hair. “I told them about the house being sold and they went off on one.”

“Why?”

He shakes his head. “I don’t even think it’s the house…Mum wanted it sold. When she got ill, she wrote me and Jack a letter. The house belonged jointly to Mum and Dad—they never got around to changing that before Dad ran off. It meant…Mum had to have Dad declared legally dead so she could sell it. I think that’s what rattled Max and Lena.”

“You think Greg is dead?”

Sean hesitates, then shakes his head. “No, of course not. But I don’t think he’s ever coming back. The house is falling apart—it’s been falling apart for years and it’s not like any of us are going to live there again, is it? Mum wants…she wants it done before she dies and me and Jack end up tangled in probate.”

“I’m sorry,” I say. “I heard shouting and I just thought…”

“I’m glad I came over,” Sean says. “Glad I came to see her.”

“Did you manage to clear the air?”

He smiles faintly. “Clear the air? That’s a diplomatic way of putting it.” He shrugs. “It was fine, Tess. Awkward on both sides, but we managed to have a conversation.”

I wonder if they did, or if they were both so careful to step around the bigger issues that the conversation was nothing but small talk. Not my business, though, unless it hurt Dad in any way. I had to leave them to sort it out.

“And is she okay about the house being sold already?”

“Do you really think Julia cares what happens to the house? She and Dad split up nearly twelve years ago. She’s glad we’re finally able to get rid of it. All she cares about right now is seeing Jack again before she dies.”

“Do you think he’ll come back?” I want him to say no.

Sean frowns. “I’ll drag him back if I have to.”

I flinch and pull a face. Fucking Jack.

“What’s your problem?” There’s a sharpness in Sean’s voice I know I deserve. “I know he was a bit of a dick back then but, come on, it’s been ten years. You teach hundreds of obnoxious teenagers—surely you can handle Jack now? He’s nearly thirty. Christ, we’re all nearly thirty.”

He’s right. Why do I have this fear, almost panic, at the thought of Jack? Lena was as obnoxious back then as Jack, but I didn’t have that same fear when I saw her. Irritation, yes. Exasperation, even, but not fear.