Mia sat on the edge of her sister’s bed and waited for her to turn round.

‘You look tired,’ Jess said eventually when she locked eyes with her sister. ‘Are you sleeping?’

Mia shrugged. ‘I had a late night. I woke early. But yeah, apart from that, I’m sleeping okay.’

‘You’re working too hard.’

Mia shook her head. ‘I enjoy it.’

Jess stared at her, her gaze intense, her mind whirring with something. ‘Do you really?’ she asked. It unnerved Mia when her sister studied her the way she did, like she knew there was more going on than Mia could ever tell her. Jess had always had an uncanny ability to sense the things left unsaid, but that ability had intensified in the last year.

‘I do,’ Mia told her.

‘I still don’t understand what you see in that place,’ Jess muttered, still watching her intently. ‘You know how Mum felt about the building when it was being developed. She used to round up signatures, to petition against it being built. You working there is like you’re going against her.’

‘Mum doesn’t mind one bit,’ Mia said. There were plenty of things she could have said to Jess. Working at Morris & Wood was surely the least of their mum’s worries. Mia’s salary had relieved the three of them as much as it could, even if it wasn’t stretching far enough.

‘You didn’t see her at the time. She hated it. She thought it was disgusting that someone like Harry Wood could waltz down here and take over. It’s like he was building a bloody shrine to himself.’

Mia shook her head and turned away.

‘I’m sorry. I know you’re doing this for us.’

You have no idea, Mia thought, but she didn’t answer.

‘Is he still a good boss to work for?’

‘Yes,’ she said, her voice clipped. She always tried to avoid getting into a conversation with Jess about work or Harry Wood, but sometimes Jess pushed her. ‘He’s fine, as bosses go. And I don’t know why you try to make me feel guilty about working there,’ she added, opening her mouth to carry on, but clamping it shut at the last minute.

Mia sighed. It was a constant see-saw of anger that Jess didn’t always appreciate what she was doing; and then guilt for feeling that way.

She had often wondered what Jess would say if she told her the truth. How the fact that her mum had battled against the development of the office had briefly tainted her view of taking the job, but an overpowering sense had seized her that this was the one opportunity she could not afford to miss.