The big shock had been finding out that the third pregnancy was twins. Now you’ve gone and done it, Jill had thought when she heard the news. This might be the end of you both. The end of your marriage.

But it wasn’t, at least not yet. So far, Mimi was coping. Just. But she didn’t even have her parents here to help her out. Another example of Mimi’s bravery — emigrating from England to Australia all alone when she was only eighteen.

Maybe Jill should call her. At least to check in. She was closer to Mimi than she was to her other daughter-in-law, but that made sense. Mimi had been a part of their family for so long, whereas Tony met Andrea much later. Married less than two years ago. And Andrea was harder to read, which was surprising, considering she was a high school teacher — Jill ought to have more in common with her. But they simply hadn’t bonded yet. In terms of looks, Andrea was Mimi’s polar opposite in every way. Where Andrea was short and slim with petite features, Mimi was all hips and breasts and she towered over pretty much everyone in their family. While Mimi had those long dark curls, Andrea kept her light-brown hair closely cropped in a pixie cut.

The other thing that brought Jill closer to Mimi was the grandchildren. Apparently Tony and Andrea didn’t want to have children. Ever. But who was the driving force behind that decision?

There had almost been a third daughter-in-law. They’d all thought Darren was going to marry his long-term girlfriend Charlotte but last year they’d discovered they were all quite wrong, and Darren had been alone ever since. Sometimes Jill worried that he was running out of time if he wanted to have a family. But then she’d remember — men had all the time in the world, didn’t they? It was women who had a ticking time bomb in their uterus. Unfair.

The kettle boiled and she poured her cup of tea, then picked up her phone to call Mimi. For a moment, her thumb hovered over the mail icon. The email had arrived three days ago. It had taken her a few minutes, but eventually, she had recognised the sender’s name. It was a name that gave her a nasty feeling in the pit of her stomach. And it was highly unusual that she would be writing to her.

Then she’d read the subject line: ‘You need to know’. Her skin had prickled with irritation. What on earth could this woman have to say that Jill apparently needed to know? The presumptuous tone annoyed her so she’d closed the app and ignored it.

Her thumb moved away from her inbox now and instead, she phoned Mimi.

*

Andrea

‘Miss, what if I was anaphylactic? Would I still have to make a cake?’