‘A couple of weeks—it tends to happen early in the morning, and when I ask her where she’s going she says she’s going to the office, to help Dad.’
‘Kate, why haven’t you said anything?’
‘Because you have a lot going on and we’ve been managing okay.’ Her sister slotted the milk back into the fridge and took up her mug, mimicking Jennifer’s stance against the worktop.
‘We?’
‘Me and Mum’s support workers.’
‘But what about your studies? You have university coming up next year.’
‘That’s not a problem.’ Kate gave an easy shrug. ‘I’m going to study from home.’
Jennifer almost dropped her coffee. ‘You’re what?’
‘Chill out, Jen. I can do what I want.’
‘You can’t want to study from home! Your grades are exceptional—you’re Oxbridge material. You...you should be going off, living the student dream, studying hard, playing harder...’ Her desperation to have her sister see sense had her words tripping over one another. ‘You should be doing what I did.’
‘It was different for you. Mum was different.’ Her sister looked away, her determination giving way to sadness. ‘I can’t leave her now—who will look after her?’
Jennifer had known this day would come and she should have pre-empted Kate’s decision, stopped her from making it in the first place. Time had crept up on her. Her sister was suddenly all grown up.
‘It’s not your responsibility,’ she assured her. ‘I will get more help in.’
‘You know it’s not that simple. Each new face only unsettles Mum further, and it’s good for her to have family around.’
There was no other family save her and her sister. There was no one else...
‘Then I will be here more often.’
Kate looked to her in disbelief. ‘How?’
‘I should never have left you as much as I have.’
Guilt was her new default position, it seemed—if it wasn’t Tony, it was her own family she was neglecting.
‘I’m sorry—it wasn’t fair. You’ve had to sacrifice your childhood to care for Mum while I’ve swanned off to London and lived out my dream.’
‘Shut it!’ snapped Kate, her coffee hitting the side and sloshing over the rim, her index finger wagging. ‘Don’t you ever apologise to me. You’ve done everything for us. If not for your career we would have nothing now. We wouldn’t be able to stay in the house that Mum knows and loves. I wouldn’t have university to look forward to, a car on the drive—a licence, even. Christ, you even pay the food bill.’
‘I get all that, love, but seriously—if you don’t go away to university I’ll never forgive myself.’
‘And I’ll never forgive myself if you sacrifice your career for me.’
‘I’m not talking about sacrificing my career.’
And she wasn’t. Now that Marcus was on board anything was possible. It not only felt feasible from a business perspective for her to leave London more often, it also felt like a sound personal decision too. More space between them, more frequently. Then maybe her body would cease its crazy hedonistic craving for him and she could rein her heart back in.
Kate didn’t look convinced. ‘How would you make it work?’
‘I have a new business partner now.’
Her sister’s eyes narrowed on her. ‘That wasn’t expected, was it?’
‘Hardly.’
‘How come you didn’t mention it last night?’