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Back We're All in This Together
Chapters (46)
  1. Cover
  2. Other Titles
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright
  5. Dedication
  6. Friday
  7. ONE
  8. TWO
  9. THREE
  10. FOUR
  11. Saturday
  12. FIVE
  13. SIX
  14. SEVEN
  15. EIGHT
  16. NINE
  17. TEN
  18. Sunday
  19. ELEVEN
  20. TWELVE
  21. THIRTEEN
  22. FOURTEEN
  23. FIFTEEN
  24. SIXTEEN
  25. SEVENTEEN
  26. EIGHTEEN
  27. NINETEEN
  28. TWENTY
  29. TWENTY-ONE
  30. TWENTY-TWO
  31. TWENTY-THREE
  32. TWENTY-FOUR
  33. TWENTY-FIVE
  34. Monday
  35. TWENTY-SIX
  36. TWENTY-SEVEN
  37. TWENTY-EIGHT
  38. TWENTY-NINE
  39. THIRTY
  40. THIRTY-ONE
  41. THIRTY-TWO
  42. THIRTY-THREE
  43. THIRTY-FOUR
  44. THIRTY-FIVE
  45. EPILOGUE
  46. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Finn comes into the house with her eyes blazing, her head a halo of frizzy hair. She is perfectly dishevelled, as if she has just taken the red-eye from Paris after partying all night with rock stars or something. Even after all these years, Katriina is still startled by how identical Finn and Nicki really are, although now she notices that Finn appears years younger – her skin smooth and unwrinkled, her body lean in the places where Nicki’s has grown flabby. Do either of them notice? she wonders. Or do they just see themselves when they look at each other?

“Oh, hi,” says Nicki. “You made it.”

“Yup,” Finn says, slipping out of her flip-flops. The air vibrates with things unsaid. Katriina can feel it – it’s as if Nicki and Finn are having a conversation that only they can hear.

“Hello, Serafina,” Katriina says, trying to break the tension. “It’s so good to see you.” She reaches out to hug her, feeling awkward and gangly and all angles as she tries to manoeuvre her arms around Finn’s small frame.

“You, too,” says Finn, flinching.

Katriina could swear that Finn and Nicki’s eyes meet behind her back. Katriina pulls away quickly, her cheeks starting to burn. “Excuse me,” she mumbles. “I’ve got to get the kids to Hanna’s.” She slips out of the kitchen and through to the backyard before anyone can say anything else, two sets of identical eyes following her as she leaves.

Finn might think she is the outsider in her family, but she is still more of a Parker than Katriina ever will be.

—

On the best of days, Katriina’s life is a messy chaos of travelling between houses – her own, Hanna’s, her parents’, Victor Street, the Paulsson place, and any other house she is trying to sell. She finds herself, more often than she would like, making tea in someone else’s kitchen, forced to make do with someone else’s choice of milk. This afternoon it is almond milk at Hanna’s place, where she drops off the kids before her next showing, because Hanna has decided she is lactose-intolerant. As if any Scandinavian was ever unable to eat cheese.