‘Oi, watch your mouth. Don’t speak to Tina like that or you’ll get a clip round the ear.’ Really helpful. Tina sighed. He should have been up out of his seat and ragged her up to her room, grounded her, taken her mobile phone away. Something to make the kid actually listen. She stood up; there was no way she was being spoken to like this, no way in this world. She eyeballed Nevaya. ‘Right, young lady. And who the hell do you think you’re talking to? Sort your attitude out and speak to me with some respect. I’m not one of your friends from the streets, and we never brought you up to have a mouth like that.’

Nevaya kicked off again, didn’t give a shit. ‘I’m sick of this bloody house, sick of you too, Tina. All you do is moan.’

Chris was studiously ignoring them, suddenly fascinated by Corrie in a way he never had been in all the years. Tina had to bite her lip before she said something she’d regret. She sat back down on the edge of the sofa and folded her arms tightly around herself. ‘Just go back upstairs and have a look in the drawer. There will be a new one in there. You’re horrible lately. I don’t even know you anymore.’

Nevaya put her hands on her hips and glared. ‘You don’t know me because I don’t want you to. You’re not my mother. I have my own, so back off.’

That was below the belt. After she’d given up so much to take on these kids. Where was the respect? Tina could have married a man without any baggage, without any problems, but she chose to give everything to this family, to help them stay together. Maybe she should have told her that, knocked her off her high horse. Ever since Chris’s ex, Wendy, had come back on the scene again, it had all gone steadily downhill. It was a joke – not a word from her for all those years and then she decided to rock up like nothing had happened. Where had she been when the kids needed her most? She didn’t deserve to be a mother. She was just a woman who had given birth and then abandoned her family when it suited her. What kind of woman did something like that?

Tina took a deep breath and looked over at Chris, hoping he’d back her up. Nothing. It was like his eyes were welded to the TV. Her blood was boiling now.

‘Are you really going to lie there and say nothing? Can you not hear how she talks to me?’

Chris sighed and scratched his head. Bloody hell, all he wanted was a bit of peace and quiet. Was that too much to ask? He was tired and in no mood for all this drama.