Page 106 of The Sisters at the Last House Before the Sea

Maisie said it so quietly, Caitlin wasn’t sure if she’d heard correctly.

But Maisie repeated it more loudly: ‘I don’t want to go back to London.’

‘Why? Because we’ve lost the house? We can get something else. It’ll be rented but I’ll make sure it’s decent. And you honestly don’t have to go and live with your grandparents when we go back to the city.’ Caitlin shrugged. ‘Unless you’d like to, that is.’

Maisie shook her head. ‘They don’t want me. I thought you didn’t want me either, but then you said you’d go back to London because of me.’

‘I would. If that’s best for you, that’s what we’ll do. We’ll go to London and get you back to school.’

‘I can’t go back to school.’

‘Yes, you can. I know you’ve been in trouble but I’ll help you to fit back in.’

‘No, you don’t understand. I cannot go back to school.’ Maisie was almost howling. ‘I hate that place and now there’s the video of me playing the joke on Miss Welby and they said they’d take it down but they lied to me and put up another one. And thousands of people have seen it so all the teachers will hate me even more and anyone I want to be friends with will hate me too.’

Caitlin rocked back on her heels, not sure what to do. She’d never seen her stepdaughter like this, with her carefully cultivated blasé attitude stripped back to the bone.

‘I…I don’t know anything about a video,’ she ventured.

‘It’s on TikTok.’ Maisie was gasping, hardly able to get her words out. ‘Two videos now. Madison and her friends posted it.’

Caitlin knew who Madison was, having been introduced to her at a school event. The girl had looked at her in such a smug, almost impertinent, way, she was hard to forget.

‘Then I’ll get the videos taken down,’ said Caitlin, anger bubbling at the thought of her child being tormented by Madison and her pals. ‘I’ll contact Madison’s parents today and insist that the videos are deleted.’

‘Will that work?’

When Maisie turned up her hopeful, tear-stained face, Caitlin’s heart almost broke.

‘I’ll make sure it works. I promise,’ she whispered. ‘I didn’t realise that you hated school so much. You never said. Even after the practical joke and your suspension, you told us you were happy there.’

‘Because I thought that’s what you and Dad wanted me to say. I wanted you to be proud of me.’

Caitlin’s shoulders slumped as she realised that Maisie had been keeping more secrets than her father’s infidelity. She gestured for the teenager to budge up and squashed into the chair beside her.

‘Listen to me,’ she said, running her fingers through Maisie’s hair. ‘We are very proud of you and want you to tell us the truth, always. Your happiness is far more important to your dad and me than you realise, and you don’t have to go back to that school. There are plenty of others in London and I’ll find somewhere to rent near a school that you like.’

‘We won’t have enough money to rent anywhere.’

‘Yes, we will, and that’s my problem to sort out, not yours.’

Maisie sniffed. ‘Or I could go to school down here.’

‘You hate it down here. I know you heard what I just said, but you don’t have to stay in Heaven’s Cove because of me.’

‘It wouldn’t be because of you, not all of it anyway. The school that Beth goes to sounds pretty decent and no one there would know what I’ve done.’ Her face clouded over. ‘As long as they’re not on TikTok.’

‘Even if they are, that doesn’t mean they’ve seen the videos that we are going to get taken down today.’

Maisie grinned and Caitlin grinned back. The chance of a whole new life in Heaven’s Cove had just opened up in front of her. But she mustn’t leap ahead too quickly.

‘Emotions are riding high after you running away last night and me ki—’ Caitlin stopped. Had she really just kissed Sean? Tingles of happiness shot through her body. ‘Anyway, let’s have a good chat once we’re both feeling less emotional and we can decide what’s best.’

‘For both of us?’ asked Maisie, uncurling herself from the chair and standing up, the damp tissue still balled in her fist.

‘Yes, for both of us.’

‘Can I go and listen to my music for a while? I’m tired.’

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