wonders. Has it always been that way?
‘I’m good,’ she says. ‘What’s going on with you?’ But she’s already turned her back on him to put a baking tray into the oven.
‘We’re completing on Japan tomorrow,’ he says, going up behind Alice and wrapping his arms around her. ‘You should be very proud of your daughter. She’s going to be an international property tycoon.’
Linda laughs, but Alice is sure there’s a bitterness to it. ‘I’m always proud of my daughter, Nathan. So it’s all going ahead then?’ She directs the question at Alice.
‘Mmm, four o’clock tomorrow. I can’t decide if I feel sick with fear or excitement.’
‘It’s a big commitment,’ says Linda. ‘It’s a lot on your shoulders.’
‘I’ll be right there beside her,’ says Nathan.
Alice shrugs him off and a tense silence hangs in the air, only broken when Olivia bursts in from the conservatory, crying.
‘Look what Phoebe did to me,’ she wails, holding her arm out.
Alice throws Nathan a look that says, If that bitch of a girl has made my daughter cry at her own birthday party, I’m going to kill her.
He glares back at her, silently saying, Okay, calm down. I’ve got this.
‘Look, there. She scratched me. Ow,’ cries Olivia, though no real tears are yet to materialize. Alice gives her arm a rub and a magic kiss.
‘Okay girls, can we please be kind to each other,’ says Nathan, going through to the conservatory and ushering the sea of blue polyester floating and spinning in front of him out into the garden. ‘If you carry on twirling, Phoebe, you’re going to make yourself sick.’
Alice hopes she might, though not on the polished wood floor.
‘Is that the little girl you think’s bullying Olivia?’ asks Linda, as the two girls link pinkies and vow to be friends again.
Alice rolls her eyes. ‘I honestly don’t know what’s going on. One minute they’re at each other’s throats and the next they’re making up again. I didn’t realize I’d told you.’
‘You didn’t,’ says Linda. ‘I was talking to Beth when you were away.’
Alice’s stomach lurches at the sound of her name, knowing that she’s going to be here any minute.
‘Well, believe it or not, it’s now being suggested that it’s actually Livvy that’s being mean,’ says Alice.
Linda folds her arms and takes a territorial stance, like a mother hen ruffling her feathers, ready for battle. Alice can’t help but laugh. ‘She might not be the angel you think she is.’
‘Absolute rubbish,’ says Linda. ‘And I’ll take on anyone who says otherwise.’
The doorbell rings and Alice immediately feels breathless. ‘Mum, would you mind?’ she says, tilting her head towards the front door.
Despite Beth insisting that she has to get off, Alice can hear her mum insisting, even louder, that she must come in. Her heart drops and she knocks back the biggest mouthful of wine that she can manage when she hears Millie coming down the hall saying, ‘Just come in for a bit, Mummy, and then you can go.’
‘Hi,’ says Beth, looking as if she’s quite literally on the back foot.
‘Hello,’ says Alice tightly.
With the people that matter to her all in one place, the magnitude of the secret they share weighs heavy on her shoulders. She’s not ready for it to be revealed, here and now, and shoots Beth a warning look, which if her old friend knows her at all, she’ll take notice of.
‘Welcome to the mayhem and mess,’ says Linda warmly, totally oblivious to the palpable tension between the other two women. ‘What can I get you to drink? And Millie darling, what would you like?’
Alice looks to her mum, her breath catching in her throat. What would she say if she knew the little girl she was offering the crisp bowl to was Sophia’s half-sister? And would Nathan be secretly pleased if he knew Tom had toppled from his place on the pedestal in such spectacular fashion?
But you might not be so squeaky clean yourself, she says to him silently, still unsure whether to believe his story about the unknown number. She wants to, but knows that if she does, she’s in danger of being as gullible as Beth was in trusting Tom. The admission that gullibility might be all that Beth is guilty of jolts her.
Alice can’t help but look at her, as if seeing her properly for the first time since her revelation. There’s a very real vulnerability in her eyes. A pain not unlike her own. The result of them both having had the lives they