Page 32 of Darling Girls

‘And that made you angry?’ he says. ‘Having her take his side like that?’

‘I guess.’

‘Must have been lonely,’ Dr Warren says. ‘Losing your father and then, in a way, losing your mother.’

‘Yes.’ The tears that spring to my eyes are born of surprise as much as anything else. ‘It was.’

A long silence ensues. I’m not sure what is happening, but I sense that Dr Warren is pleased with me. And even as a fully grown woman, there is something about pleasing people that still makes me feel good.

‘I’m afraid our time is up,’ he says, a second before the knock on the door. He closes the file in his lap and opens the brown leather briefcase by his feet. It contains an alphabetical file organiser. A filing system in a bag. He flicks through the dividers until he gets to ‘F’ for Fairchild.

‘I’ll see you next time,’ he says as he slides my file inside.

14

NORAH

From the back seat of Jessica’s Audi, Norah reached between her sisters and grabbed the vanilla-scented cardboard air-freshener tab that hung from the rear-view mirror.

‘Hey!’ Jessica cried.

‘These are full of chemicals,’ Norah said, tossing it out the window of the moving car. ‘I read somewhere they can give you cancer.’

Norah had read no such thing, but the smell of those things was like sandpaper against her brain, and she would never last the distance to Port Agatha with it in the car.

‘I wouldn’t need it if you didn’t always insist on bringing your dogs in my car!’ Jessica muttered. ‘Where am I dropping them anyway?’

Norah had been slightly duplicitous when she’d loaded them into the car, telling Jessica she just needed to ‘drop them somewhere’ and immediately changing the subject. She’d hoped Jessica would forget they were there, but they weren’t being their best selves. Thong had already drooled all over the leather seats and Couch had shed hair everywhere except for the blankets Norah had brought for him to sit on. Converse, who was resting his head on the centre console, had been relatively quiet, but that was only because he’d discovered the bag of bougie dog treats in Jessica’s bag and devoured the lot, meaning he would soon have terrible gas.

‘Doggy day care?’ Alicia suggested, when Norah didn’t respond.

‘As if,’ Norah said. ‘Those things cost an arm and a leg!’

‘Jessica will pay,’ Alicia said, and Jessica nodded enthusiastically. Jessicalovedpaying for things. ‘It’s only money,’ she’d say with a wistful, floating expression, as if she were a meditation teacher. ‘You can’t take it with you when you die.’

As for Norah, she was more than happy to take Jessica’s money. In fact, lately, whenever Norah wanted new clothes, she simply emailed links to Jessica and a few days later the desired garments showed up in boxes on her doorstep. It was like Uberclothes, except they didn’t charge her card.

Alicia, however, refused to take Jessica’s money. Recently, when Norah was giving her a hard time about it, Alicia told her it was because she was too proud.

‘Proud of what?’ Norah had cried. ‘Being poor?’

Alicia hadn’t responded. Sometimes Norah didn’t understand her at all.

‘Norah,’ Jessica said tightly. ‘Tell me where I’m taking these dogs, or I swear I’m leaving them on the side of the road.’

‘Jess,’ Alicia said in a conciliatory tone, ‘surely we can let them –’

‘No. They can’t come all the way to Port Agatha. Not in my new car.’

‘They’re on blankets,’ Norah said. ‘And they’ve already drooled on the seats.’

Jessica looked like her head might explode. Luckily, her phone chose that moment to ring. ‘Fine!’ she said. ‘But never again. I mean it, Norah.’

Alicia gave her the thumbs-up and Norah settled back into her seat happily, ready to enjoy the drive as they left the city behind.

‘Jessica Lovat, Love Your Home,’ Jessica said.

‘Hey, Jess, it’s me.’ Norah recognised the voice that boomed over the speaker. It was Sonja, the manager of Jessica’s business. ‘Sorry to bother you on a weekend.’