Page 128 of Guilty Mothers

They might be a little bit selfish, a little bit lazy, but once a mother, all unsaintly traits were expected to disappear. Annoying traits became despicable, and any misdeed was followed by ‘but she’s a mother’ as though that erased all other aspects of her personality.

It was possible to love a child and still have bad traits.

On the flip side, two other members of her team had found a mother being subjected to horrific abuse at the hands of her son. Had it not been for their tenacity and their insistence on following their gut instincts, who knew how much longer Olivia would have been imprisoned.

Penn and Tiff had caught a murderer and saved a life at the same time.

She was proud of all of them, she realised as she took her cup into the squad room for a refill.

What she hadn’t heard from inside the Bowl was Tiff quietly humming a tune from a Disney animation about building a snowman or something. Without warning, words started to come out of Tiff’s mouth, refashioned to the popular tune.

‘Do you wanna write a statement?’

Kim’s head snapped around.

‘Before you go outside to play.’

Stacey, Penn and Bryant followed her gaze, mouths open.

‘Do you wanna get your work done?’

Tiff remained head down, oblivious to their stares of awe.

‘On a rainy Saturday.’

Kim coughed, and Tiff finally became aware of their attention.

She coloured. ‘Sorry, I can’t help myself.’

Kim glanced around the room at Penn’s Rubik’s cube, Stacey’s hula hoop and Bryant’s magic set.

A slow, genuine smile started to creep onto her face.

‘Err…Tiff, have you got a minute?’

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