Sunday morning at ten, Mum called round to take Evie to the park as planned.

‘Do you want to come in for a cuppa?’ I asked her as she told Evie to get her coat from the front door step.

It wasn’t much of an invite, I admit.

‘No, I’ll get straight off, I think,’ she said, in the wounded tone she liked to use when I’d done something wrong but she didn’t want to discuss it.

‘What’s the matter?’ I said, unwilling to let it go. ‘I can’t say a thing lately without you getting the hump.’

She gave me a rueful smile and shook her head.

‘You know, Toni, I’d like to live in your world. Where nothing you ever do is wrong and you very conveniently forget about the needs of others.’

I didn’t have a clue what she was getting at.

‘Anyway, it’s not me I’m worried about.’ She scowled and discreetly tipped her head towards Evie.

‘She’s fine,’ I sighed. ‘Or she will be, if you’d stop trying to give her a complex.’

‘She’s retreating into a shell.’ Mum’s face darkened. ‘She’s nervy and uncharacteristically quiet, Toni. Surely you can see that?’

It felt like something had loosened inside of me, something that wanted to shut Mum up.

‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ I snapped. ‘There’s nothing wrong with her. Lots of kids have a problem adjusting to a new school.’

‘I’m not just talking about school,’ Mum said quietly. ‘She’s not sleeping properly, she’s losing weight. Look at her.’

Evie shrugged on her light jacket and beamed up at me. ‘Bye, Mummy,’ she sang. ‘See you later.’

There didn’t look much wrong with her to me.

‘Fine,’ I said. ‘We can talk about this later.’

But I had no intention of doing so.

I bent to kiss the top of Evie’s head. ‘See you soon, poppet. Have fun.’

Mum took her hand and I moved to close the door behind them.

‘You might want to clear that mess up while we’re out,’ she said, nodding towards the corner. I followed her line of sight but the chair was in the way of whatever she was looking at. ‘I’ll bring her back after she’s had her tea.’

And with that, they were gone.

I clicked the front door closed, leaned against the wall and closed my eyes. Peace at last. A few hours where I had no responsibilities, expectations or a paranoid mother to contend with. There were a thousand and one jobs that needed doing in the house but I pushed all thoughts of hard work out of my head.

First job was coffee. The next a long, hot bath with the book I’d been picking up and putting down for the last two weeks.

I walked into the kitchen and filled the kettle. A tap on the window made me look and my heart sank when I saw it was Sal from next door. I cursed my bad luck at being in full view in the kitchen. I would have happily hidden behind the door until she went away again.

‘Looks like I’m just in time,’ she said when I opened the door. She gave me a gappy grin and nodded to the kettle as she stepped inside without being asked. ‘Seeing as you never came round for that cuppa, I thought I’d do the honours instead.’

‘Oh right,’ I said tightly. ‘Thing is, Sal, Mum’s just taken Evie for a couple of hours and I’ve got loads of unpacking still left to do.’

‘I’ll help you,’ she said cheerfully. ‘I don’t mind, I’m at a loose end all day.’

She and both her sons were at a loose end every day, from what I could see.

‘Thanks but there’s no need,’ I said firmly, imagining the horror of being stuck with her for hours on end, with no escape. ‘But I can take ten minutes out for a chat.’

‘So,’ she said as I put two steaming mugs of coffee down on the table. ‘I hear you met our Col the other day?’

‘Yes,’ I said, imagining the names he’d probably called me. This was my chance to tell Sal the truth. ‘Did he tell you what happened?’

She took a noisy slurp of her coffee and nodded, grinning at me. ‘Gave you a fright, I hear.’

‘Actually, Sal, he really did.’ Something clawed at the inside of my throat. ‘I really thought Evie had gone. I didn’t know what the hell had happened to her.’

‘Yeah, but he said you’d left her on her own all morning, love.’

‘Rubbish!’ How dare she come round here, virtually accusing me of neglect. ‘I was upstairs, that’s all. I’ve still got loads to do up there and—’

‘Your little ’un told our Col you were still in bed, said she couldn’t wake you.’

The thought of her slimy son questioning my daughter made me feel sick to my stomach.

‘Well, she was mistaken.’ Her eyes flicked to my hands and I realised I was gripping the edge of the table like a vice. I wiggled my fingers to relax them. ‘I’d got a bit of a headache, that’s all. I was just having a lie down, I wasn’t asleep.’

‘Ahh, I see. Kids, what’re they like, eh? They tell you anything.’

The last thing I wanted was a confrontation but it was important to make my position crystal clear. This was my chance.

‘More to the point, Sal, Colin should never have encouraged Evie to come over to your side without checking with me first,’ I remarked. ‘That was really irresponsible of him. People could get the wrong idea.’

Her face darkened and the good-natured grin slipped.

‘What are you trying to say?’

I swallowed. ‘I’m just saying, a grown man taking a five-year-old girl without her mother’s permission might not look good to—’

She slammed her hand down flat on the table and I jumped up from my seat. She was reducing me to a bag of nerves in my own home.

‘Enough of that. You can just shut your mouth,’ she hissed. ‘Our Col has enough fucking trouble from the coppers without you starting to spread your vile lies.’

‘Sal, I’m not saying Colin was up to no good.’ I sat down again, pressing the air with my hands as I tried to placate her. ‘I’m just saying it doesn’t look very good. All he had to do was tell me—’

‘You were out of it, drugged up in bed.’

‘I told you, I was just having a lie down—’

‘You were out of it.’ Her eyes flashed in slight hesitation and then spite got the better of her. ‘I know that because our Col couldn’t wake you up.’

A cold chill crept up my back. A second or two of silence stretched between us as the meaning of her words dawned on me.

When I spoke, my voice was shaking. ‘Are you telling me he came into my bedroom?’ I stood up, placing my fingertips on the table to steady myself.

She pressed her lips together, smug and accomplished.

‘You’d better go,’ I said, with as much dignity as I could muster. ‘And you can tell your son, if he ever sets foot inside my house again, I’ll ring the police.’

She stood up and purposely let her mug drop to the floor, coffee and smashed shards spattering to the furthest corners of the room.

‘What the hell are you doing?’ I yelped, stepping back to protect my bare feet. The woman was a maniac.

‘Don’t even think of trying to cause trouble with the coppers, love.’ She waved her phone at me with a menacing look. ‘Or someone might just have to show ’em why your kid was on her own for hours on end. It’s all on here. You should be thanking our Col. She could’ve run out onto that main road, or fell down the stairs.’

I opened my mouth in retort but found there were no words waiting to be spat out in reply.

There was absolutely nothing I could say to defend myself.