“I think Dad knows where she is. I think he’s been going to see her. I heard him on the phone.”

Bella’s face goes white.

“I’m worried, Bella.” I get the words out at last. “I’m worried Dad’s the reason Julia left Greg.”

Bella shakes her head. “No. No fucking way is that going to happen.”

June 2007

We sit in shock. Me and Bella, the distance between us closed by this…this thing that’s happened. Dad is downstairs with Julia. With her. He came home from the pub with her and they were holding hands and laughing. Bella saw them from her bedroom window and came and woke me up. Together we watched as Dad leaned in and kissed her, her fake red hair shining under the outside light.

I was right. Awfully, horribly right.

But neither of us can quite believe it. This is why Julia left Greg? For my dad? Ten years older, four inches shorter, my permanently broke dad?

Bella suddenly starts laughing. “Can you fucking believe this?” she says.

I start laughing too—what the hell else are we supposed to do?

“Girls? Are you still awake?”

Dad’s voice calling up the stairs cuts through our laughter. He’s waiting in the kitchen when we go downstairs, still holding Julia’s hand.

“What’s going on?” Bella asks.

Dad glances at Julia. “We…that is, I…Julia’s going to be staying with us for a while. With me.”

“What?” I half laugh as I say it. This has to be a joke, right? Or a dream. It’s a bloody bad dream.

“We’ve become closer. In the last few months. Since…”

“No fucking way.” Bella’s voice cuts Dad off. “You are not serious?”

“Bella…”

“No. Just no. She is not moving in here—into my mother’s house. Into my mother’s bed.”

“Bella—come on,” I say, stepping up to touch her arm.

She shakes me off. “Stay out of it, Tess.” She turns to Julia. “And you—what is this? You kill your own daughter in a crash, so you think you can move in and get two new ones?”

“Arabella,” Dad says again, his voice raised in anger. “How dare you—”

“How dare I? What the damned hell is this? You two have been sneaking around having some seedy affair and now you’re moving her in? What—are you going to move Jack and Sean in as well, expect us to play happy fucking families?”

She whirls around, looks at me. “Are you happy with that, Tess? Having Jack and Sean in your house?”

I shake my head, struck dumb by her rage. Julia’s face crumples and I feel awful. I like Julia, I really do, but this…

“And Greg? Your husband, Julia?” Bella is still shouting. “What’s he going to have to say about this?”