But Darren shook his head. ‘It’s not a good thing. I met this woman but turns out she’s not interested.’

Pete gave him a look. ‘Not much we can do about that unfortunately.’

‘Ha. I’m just sick of everything at the moment.’

‘Well, you know what you need to do?’

‘What’s that?’

‘Use it. Use all of it. Channel everything you’re feeling into your writing. You’ve got to get out of your damn head and stop fucking around. Put that bloody Sagittarius woman out of your head and write.’

Darren flinched. ‘How do you know her name?’

‘Huh?’

‘The woman I was seeing? How do you know her name?’

‘What? I wasn’t talking about her. I was talking about the reviewer. From The SMH.’

‘But that’s a guy. S. Carter wrote that review.’

‘Talk about sexist stereotypes, buddy. S. Carter isn’t a guy. It’s a woman. She goes by her first initial because she hates her name — Sagittarius.’

*

Jill

It was throughout the walk that Jill had caught onto the truth. Mimi’s stilted voice made it obvious. There was no way that bottle belonged to Callie. It was Mimi’s. And for some reason, she was hiding it. And hiding alcohol was never a good sign. She’d bloody well known that Mimi was going to find it hard with the twins. Why hadn’t she insisted on helping more? Jill had decided not to call her out on her lie yet though. For whatever reason, Mimi wasn’t ready to talk and Jill didn’t want to force her. After all, she knew what it was like to avoid something, considering the fact she still hadn’t reopened that email. She knew she would have to read it eventually. But it could wait, at least until after Christmas. For now, she needed to keep an eye on Mimi. Maybe up at Nords Wharf they would get the chance to chat.

Back at home, Jill opened her suitcase on her bed and started packing her neatly folded clothes into it when the doorbell rang. She opened the door and found Andrea standing on the porch, a strange, sad look on her face.

‘What is it?’ Jill said immediately, ‘what’s wrong?’ ‘It’s Tony,’ Andrea said. ‘He’s been lying to me. Actually, he’s been lying to all of us.’

*

Andrea

They had sat and talked for over an hour. Their cups of tea had gone cold. The plate of biscuits Jill put down in front of them remained untouched. To begin with, Jill had been disbelieving. She was certain there had been some sort of mix-up. But eventually, Andrea had got through to her and she understood. Tony had stolen his father’s book.

‘But how was Frank writing it without me even knowing?’ Jill had asked, more than once.