Charley tells her mum that it’s been a really long time since there were any actual dyslexia lessons for Blake and the others, which is funny because that’s why they all made friends in the first place. She wasn’t even supposed to be there. Mum says they can’t possibly ask. Ash died less than six months ago, which is nothing. According to Mum, some people are sad forever when their children die. Poppy says she misses Ash really badly but she doesn’t want to talk to her parents in case it reminds them; Mum says they’ll be thinking about it all the time anyway. They see them almost every day. Charley gets that it’s been really hard for Izzy because of what her dad did and she can see that Izzy’s trying to be nice, but it still doesn’t make Charley like her much. She misses Dad, but not as much as she’d miss Mum to be honest. Dad slept with Eve, which puts her off both of them, though Blake says to get over it. He thinks Mum has. Charley doesn’t think she has, quite.

Blake misses Dad all the time. Dad going to Africa makes about the sixth or seventh major bad thing this year. Ash dying was the worst, obviously. Then Sorrel being kidnapped and Paul turning out to be the one who kidnapped her. What happened to Izzy and what happened to her mum. The knife thing, obviously. He misses Dad in the mornings, mucking around with them and laughing, it made Mum’s nagging bearable. And he misses him in the evenings watching telly. And going to football. He doesn’t care if Dad made out with Eve, so what? He doesn’t know if Izzy’s one of the good things or one of the bad things. They play normal things like Monopoly now. She’s nicer to Charley and Sorrel and Poppy. Well, to everyone really.

Izzy’s proud of what she did and so is Mum. No one would have thought that because of her, Dad would end up in prison and Mum would be safe and so would she. Really safe. She did that on her own. Wow. She could have done it a long time ago, but she’s not sure if anyone would have believed her, without what happened to Sorrel added in. It’s great they’re staying with Eve; she wants to see how Sorrel does, obviously. It’s working out okay, living together. She can see Blake isn’t sure about her now, Charley doesn’t like her much and Grace definitely doesn’t since she told her about Eve and Martin. The important thing is that Mum, Poppy, Sorrel and Eve are on her side. She’s glad things have worked out as they have, mainly because Mum’s completely different. She hasn’t got any bruises, she even walks differently. It makes it all worthwhile. It’s just her and Mum in their family from now on and Dad can’t do one thing about it.