Page 33 of One in Three

POLICE

Here you go. Careful, it’s hot.

AL

Thanks. It’s just … no one believed Caz and look what’s happened. Louise is really plausible, but I’m telling you, there’s another side to her; honestly, I think she’s unhinged. I mean, that business with the cat, and all the nonsense she pulled with the school play. Whodoesthat?

Six weeks before the party

Chapter 6

Min

Luke is curled up on the sofa when I come downstairs on Saturday morning, a small boy snuggled into the crook of each arm. All three are covered with Coco Pops, the empty cereal box on the floor testament to their nutritious breakfast. Akin to the unshod cobbler’s child, the offspring of doctors are the least healthily nourished in the land. ‘I can’t believe I slept in so late,’ I exclaim. ‘It’s after eight. You should have woken me.’

My husband cranes his neck around me so he can still see the television. ‘You pulled a double shift. You needed your sleep.’

‘Mummy! You’re in the way.’

‘What are you watching?’ I ask, glancing at the screen.

‘Stranger Things,’ seven-year-old Sidney says.

‘Luke! Isn’t that a bit scary for them?’

‘We like scary,’ Archie says, burrowing further into his father’s arms.

I pick up the cereal box and open the curtains,ignoring the boys’ squeals of protest as the Stygian gloom is dispelled. ‘Where are the twins?’

Luke finally yields to the interruption and pauses the TV. ‘It’s not lunchtime yet. Where d’you think?’

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