Darren had been so focused on his mother that he hadn’t thought about the fact that there were other people who might need his help.

He took a small step back from his mum’s Volvo and looked around at the surrounding carnage.

His eyes widened.

Chapter Twelve

CHAPTER TWELVE

Tuesday 15 December

Andrea

There was no way she could ignore the raised voices out in the hall. And Heather’s voice was unmistakable. ‘Oh my God,’ she was squealing, ‘you are such a slut.’

It didn’t sound like it was being said in anger though, there was more of a playful tone to her voice. But she was loud. And it was late. Into the early hours of Tuesday morning already. Tony was in bed, fast asleep. But Andrea had stayed up, unable to sleep. She was sensing a migraine might be coming on and she’d been sitting out in the dark living room, drinking herbal tea and trying to relax.

Dinner had been . . . interesting.

Tony had been in such a great mood after the talk with the English class. They’d gone out to an expensive restaurant at Cockle Bay Wharf where he’d suggested they do the seven-course degustation menu with matching wines. Quite the celebration for a Monday night. Andrea had managed the pre-dinner visit up the hall to Heather’s place without Tony noticing that she was attempting to interfere again and she had resolved to keep a more distant eye on Heather and Violet. The woman was baking with her daughter. She couldn’t be all bad, could she? And if Shaun was really that worried, he’d have contacted her quite quickly, wouldn’t he?

The problem came when she decided to finally take both Kelly and Jill’s advice and talk with Tony over dinner about the new feelings she’d been having around parenthood.

‘I know we closed the door on this a long time ago . . . but can we maybe revisit the idea of having a child?’ she’d blurted out over the fifth course.

Tony had frozen with his fork halfway to his mouth; she’d seen his Adam’s apple jerk as he swallowed. ‘Wow, this is pretty far out of the blue.’

‘I know, I know, I’m sorry. I’m not saying this is something I even necessarily want, I’m only saying that I want to talk about it again.’

‘Okay,’ he’d said, nodding. Then he’d given her a piercing look. ‘I know where this is coming from.’

‘You do?’

‘Yes. This is because you’ve been getting so carried away playing mum to Violet and now it’s made you broody.’

Andrea had flinched at his tone. At his words. He was being nasty. He’d never been nasty to her like that before. And this was the second time he’d called her involvement with Violet ‘playing mum’. There was something so patronising about the way he said that.