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There was a knock at the door, and Maya opened her eyes. She must have drifted off after she took that painkiller.

Yvonne’s voice sounded from the other side of the door. “Maya? Can I come in?”

Sitting up, she rubbed her eyes. “Yeah.”

Her mum entered the room, coming in to sit on the edge of the bed and kissing her forehead. “Thank you for supporting your sister, even though you two hadn’t been getting along.”

Maya shrugged. “Just in training for my mission to bring about world peace.”

Yvonne smiled, stroking Maya’s hair. Then her smile faded. “I’m sorry that you didn’t feel able to tell me you didn’t want to be an accountant any longer. I should have pushed you a little harder when we spoke about it.”

Maya sat forward. “It’s my fault. Trying to avoid the issue, as usual. Plus I didn’t want to ruffle feathers between you and Dad.”

Yvonne sighed. “I need to step up. I didn’t realize what Hana was going through, at least not the extent of it. Too busy getting my physio business off the ground. And now I’ve let you down too.”

“No, you haven’t,” Maya said, hugging her. “It’s not your fault. We’re all complicit, including Hana and me. We need to voice the things we’re feeling more.”

An awareness that she’d managed to confront her father in order to protect her sister, but that she still hadn’t been able to do the same for herself, enveloped her.

Yvonne rubbed Maya’s back. “I’ll have a word with your dad. Try and work on him a bit more, and we’ll get him onto our page.” Easing back, she smiled. “Dinner’s ready, if you feel like eating with us.”

“Sure,” Maya said, feeling anything but. She lifted her phone off the side and noticed that an e-mail had arrived, so she checked it. The hairs on the back of her neck rose as she realized it was from Perry and Pearson. “Ugh. Terrible timing.”

“What is?” Yvonne asked as she rose from the bed.

“I’ve got a bloody interview at Perry and Pearson. A vacancy’s come up and they want to do it via Zoom this week.” Maya climbed off the bed, and shot her mum a look.

“What do you want to do?” Yvonne asked.

Maya sighed, pocketing her phone and rubbing her face. “I don’t know. My brain is still fried from having to have an actual confrontation earlier. You know how much I love those.”

Smiling, Yvonne reached for the door handle. “What does your gut tell you?”

“Apart from that I’m starving?” Maya asked, following her mum down the stairs. “That I don’t want to work for Perry and Pearson. But that I equally don’t want to let Dad down by declining the interview when they’re clearly offering it because Dad contacted one of the partners.”

Yvonne spoke in a low voice. “Do you want to keep it to ourselves until you decide?”

Maya shook her head. “If Dad hears about it from his friend at the firm and realizes I didn’t tell him, it’ll cause trouble.”

Yvonne took her hand and squeezed it.

They entered the kitchen, and Maya kept her eyes off her dad, instead returning Hana’s smile. She took a seat next to Hana, out of Omar’s eyeline, and they started eating. The elephant in the room (as in, the recent shouting match) remained ignored in true Bashir fashion.

Flashing Hana a side glance, Maya touched her hand. “Feeling any better?”

She nodded. “A bit, thank you.” Maya could sense that she meant emotionally as well as physically. “Rosie’s coming at the weekend,” Hana continued.

“Brilliant,” Maya said, relieved to hear it. All these arguments were seriously throwing off her groove. Speaking of which, she decided to come clean about the interview. She took a deep breath. “I just got an e-mail from Perry and Pearson. They want to do a virtual interview later on this week.”

Omar snapped his gaze up. “That’s excellent news.”

Maya remained silent.

“You are going to accept the offer of an interview, aren’t you?” Omar said. Yvonne touched his hand and shot him a gentle frown.

Maya sighed. “I don’t know.”

He opened his mouth, then closed it again when Yvonne’s frown deepened. Taking a sip of water, he cleared his throat. “Perhaps a compromise would be to do the interview, and then see how you feel? They might not offer the job, but it’d keep your options open.”