Normally Maddie’s full of bounce when they’re on their way to meet her brother, but today she hardly answers when Kate talks to her.
‘What is it, Mads?’ Kate asks, and is alarmed to see her daughter’s eyes fill with tears. ‘What’s the matter, darling?’
‘I miss him so much, Mom. I love seeing him every Sunday, but I hate him being there. I hate Kyle Blake and his stupid parents. Why can’t he just be at home with us? We could look after him. You and me, Mom. We could help him if Ms Turner told us what to do.’
She doesn’t mention her father and neither does Kate. Staring out the window, tears streaming, Maddy says, ‘When I’m older, I’m going to buy a house, with a separate flat, and I’m going to live there with Noah. Not with all those other people. Maybe not even with Juliet.’ She sounds like a little girl again, not her adolescent self. ‘I wish I could do that right now.’
‘Noah might be lonely if you took him away from Greenhills,’ her mom says. ‘He’s settling in there. Making friends.’
As she says the words, Kate feels as if part of her is breaking off, breaking away. Until now, she hasn’t thought of Noah being away from her permanently, but it will happen, one of these days. Even now, in Greenhills, Noah’s happier than he’s been at home for a very long time.
‘I don’t care,’ Maddie says. ‘I don’t care if he gets lonely. I want him back.’