His hands tighten on the steering wheel again. “I won’t let them. She finally has all her family here, a chance to say…I won’t let them ruin it.”

And I can’t ruin it either with a stupid, decade-old fear of being in the same house as Jack.

“It’s okay,” I force myself to say. “We’ll sort it between us. We won’t let anyone spoil this for Julia.”

Dad sighs. “Jack hasn’t actually seen her yet. But she knows he’s here. If you’d seen how happy she was…”

Jack joins Max at the window, watching us like he can hear our conversation, and I want to duck down in my seat and hide. He looks so much like his brother, but his hair is longer, darker, swept to the side. He has stubble that’s almost enough to be a beard, but the eyes are the same, that light, light blue. The difference is the smile. Sean rarely smiles, but Jack’s smiling out at us, like we’re not here waiting for his mother to die, like bones haven’t just been found in his garden, looking happy to be here.

Jack steps out of the house as we leave the car and Dad frowns.

“Go on in, Dad,” I say.

“Are you sure?” But he’s already looking up at Julia’s window.

“Go on. I’ll get my bag and I’ll be right behind you.”

I wait for Dad to go in before I turn to face Jack.

“Hey, Tess,” he says. He reaches for my bag but I snatch it away from him.

“Hello, Jack.”

He smiles. “It’s been a long time.”

I grit my teeth. “So is it just you, or do we have the pleasure of meeting your family?”

His smile gets wider. “You don’t sound like you’d consider it a pleasure.” His smile drops. “And no, I came alone. This isn’t how I’d want my wife and son to meet my mother.”

“I’m sorry. About Julia.”

He sighs. “Yeah, it is a bit of a shit show, isn’t it? Julia, whatever the hell is going on at Dean House, and you, Tess—I hear you tried and failed to kill off our darling Max. What the hell did he do to make you try the whole murder/suicide thing?”

“Ha ha, very funny, Jack. As always, it’s so lovely to see you. And so unchanged.”

He grins. “Funny how that doesn’t sound much like a compliment.”

“It wasn’t meant to be.”

“Well, is that any way to be with a poor man whose mother is dying and whose family home appears to have become a graveyard?”

“I can’t say you look like you’re either grieving or in shock.”