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Isla pushed herself away from the desk and walked through the door without a backwards glance.
37
MAISIE
It was unbearable that she was expected to live in this atmosphere, some might say tantamount to child abuse.
Maisie glanced between Isla and Caitlin, who were sitting with trays of food on their laps, though neither of them were eating their evening meal. Both of them were pushing food around their plates and glaring at each other. Isla’s eyes were red-rimmed and Caitlin looked drawn and unwell.
No wonder she felt so upset all the time, having to live with a couple of emotional wrecks, thought Maisie, spearing a sausage and lifting it to her mouth. Though, to be honest, she wasn’t very hungry either. The charged atmosphere in the room was draining her will to live.
‘I broke up with Paul,’ said Isla suddenly.
Caitlin put down the knife she wasn’t using. ‘O-K,’ she said slowly.
‘OK? Is that all you have to say on the matter?’
Maisie glanced nervously between the sisters. It was all going to kick off, she could feel it, and she wasn’t sure she could cope with much more today.
The last time she’d checked, the stupid TikTok video had thousands of views and comments ranged from people posting laughing emojis to others accusing her of being vile, and worse. Her heart fluttered as the more vitriolic comments, forever seared into her brain, began to spool across her mind.
Caitlin pushed her tray away, making everything clatter. ‘I don’t know what you want me to say, Isla?’
‘You could say that you’re happy that Paul and I have split up. Happy that you were right and he did knock the curry over me on purpose.’
Whoa! Maisie put her unbitten sausage back on her plate. This was a piece of information that she’d so far been unaware of, and it was wild. Pompous Paul was even more horrible than she’d suspected.
‘I can’t say that I’m unhappy about it,’ said Caitlin slowly, carefully choosing her words. ‘You deserve better than Paul, but I’m sure you feel sad about the whole thing.’
‘Sad?’ Isla laughed. ‘Yeah, I do feel sad about it, even though it turns out that he’s a controlling arse. Looks like I couldn’t manage my life without you after all, hey, sis?’
Caitlin frowned, her face caught in the glow from the fire that was blazing in the grate. ‘I think you’ve managed fine and I get why you’re mad at me. But I think, in this instance, that it’s Paul you’re really angry with?’
‘Are you my psychoanalyst now, Cait? You’ve come back to Heaven’s Cove to sort out my life and stop me from making a terrible mistake?’
‘There’s no need to be so mean,’ countered Caitlin, a flush rising across her face.
Maisie sighed because Caitlin was right and, although Isla had every right to be annoyed with her, this anger was fuelled by her break-up with Paul. Maisie had done it often enough – taken out her frustration and upset on her dad and stepmum when things at school were going badly.
‘How dare you accuse me of being mean?’ Isla shot back. ‘I’ve welcomed you into my home and—’
‘It’s my home, too.’
‘Not according to Gran, who left it to me, basically, for as long as I want it.’
‘You like to keep rubbing that in my face, don’t you?’
‘Only because you can’t wait for me to go off travelling so you can sell this place.’
‘I’ve told you that I don’t want to sell Rose Cottage. All I want is for you to do what makes you happy.’
‘Maybe I was happy before you turned up.’
Maisie watched them, two adults bickering like children. Her head was aching with everything going on in her life – her dad had more or less disappeared, her home was being sold, Caitlin would be off soon, and school would be a nightmare now the video had been posted on TikTok. At least it must have been taken down by now.
She’d finally sent a message to the WhatsApp group – not blaming anyone or being too stressy, but begging them to delete it – and Madison had promised, while not saying who’d posted it, that it would be taken down at once. That was kind of her, wasn’t it? They probably hadn’t meant to cause Maisie so much angst.
Maisie half-turned her attention back to the warring sisters in front of her as she grabbed her phone and went to TikTok. Caitlin and Isla were now arguing about the stupid letter that they were obsessed with these days.
