Page 58 of The Sunrise Sisterhood

Skye winced. ‘Sorry. But there’s no way I’m letting you drive. Pretty sure that driving with a broken arm would invalidate your insurance, not to mention buggering up your arm for eternity.’

‘Don’t swear in front of Ivy. And it’s an automatic. I could manage.’ Clare could feel anxiety thrumming in her chest. ‘Please. I’d just feel safer.’

‘For an intelligent woman, you do say some ridiculous things.’

Clare looked out of the window. Her lips were trembling and she pressed them together. ‘You have no idea.’

Saskia. My name is Saskia. Clare squeezed her eyes shut, blocking the memory, just as she’d been doing since that night.

‘Sorry,’ said Skye primly. ‘But I’m driving. Get over it.’

‘You love it, don’t you?’ Clare glared at her. ‘Seeing me incapacitated.’

‘What?’ Skye replied, harshly. ‘Why would you even think that? And, anyway, I am insured. Dad insured me to drive any car.’

‘Of course he did,’ Clare muttered under her breath.

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

‘It means that you’re still Daddy’s little princess even at thirty.’

‘Twenty-nine.’ Skye gripped the steering wheel. ‘And if anyone was put on a pedestal, it was you – Clare this, Clare that.’

‘Rubbish,’ Clare scoffed. ‘You were showered with gifts from the day you were born.’

‘That’s just stuff – I wanted attention, not stuff!’ Skye bit back. ‘Shit!’

A pheasant skittered into the middle of the road. Skye swerved around it, causing Clare to knock her arm on the car door.

‘Ahhh, f—’

‘Don’t swear,’ Skye jumped in. ‘But sorry about that.’

‘Oh for heaven’s sake, stop saying sorry,’ Clare said through gritted teeth. Her face was itchy with tears and she was dying to brush them away, but she daren’t let go of her broken arm for one second.

They pulled up to a junction and Skye indicated to turn left.

‘Could you …?’ Clare squeezed her eyes shut; asking for help was so embarrassing. ‘Could you wipe my face please. There are tissues in the glove box.’

‘Sure.’ Skye’s touch was so gentle that more tears appeared. ‘Oh Clare,’ she whispered. ‘I’m trying not to say sorry but—’

‘You can go,’ Clare nodded to the empty road.

‘So, can I just ask.’ Skye pulled away from the junction. ‘About Adam.’

‘No you can’t.’

‘OK.’

In the back, Ivy started to grizzle.

‘Put her music on,’ Clare suggested. ‘That usually calms her.’

They drove the rest of the way to the sound of ‘Old Macdonald’; Skye and Ivy joined in with all the animal noises while Clare did her best not to weep with self-pity.

When they arrived at the hospital, Skye stopped in the drop-off zone. An ambulance shot past them, sirens blazing, and Clare shrank down into her seat. Skye ran round to the passenger side and opened the door. She pressed the button to release Clare’s seat belt for her and gently slid it over her body, taking care not to touch her.

Clare swung her legs out of the car and shuffled to the edge of the seat. ‘Will you get Ivy out of her car seat for me please?’