Tina had been a bit shellshocked at first, but, after a time, was happy enough to take on the role of surrogate mother. How hard could it be? She did all the stuff you were supposed to; read bedtime stories, baked cakes, mopped up tears when they were upset, cleaned the puke when they were ill. Truth be told, it had been easy enough when they were little but now they were teenagers it was a very different kettle of fish. No gratitude for everything she’d done for them, anything she did for them, no thank yous or appreciation. And it seemed to happen overnight. They went to bed as normal children and got up the following morning spotty, hormonal, ticking time bombs. Nightmares the both of them. Charlie seemed to have decided that he was the man of the house, and started testing Tina at every opportunity. She’d tried speaking to Chris, of course, but he never really saw the digs, the pushing at the pecking order of the household, so he mostly just ignored it and carried on as normal.

Bone idle, Charlie was, he had never done a tap in the house, always ‘busy’ whenever she asked him to do anything. After everything she’d done, he could have pulled his finger out now and then instead of sprawling on the sofa the whole time, playing deaf. But now, she’d realised that lazy was easier to cope with than bolshy.

Charlie’s sister was even more of a piece of work. Nevaya was a right handful, she never wanted to spend time with Tina anymore. No more girly pamper nights, no duvet days at weekends watching chick flicks together – it had all gone. If she wasn’t at school or out with her mates, she was dossing in her bedroom, on the phone to them. She only appeared when she wanted something. And the mouth on her. Tina felt like she’d lost a friend – just another blow for her to take. Maybe if she could have had her own it would have been different, but she’d never know now, would she? The thought that she would never hold her own child in her arms killed her.