Lou stirred her hot chocolate. Her half-hearted diet wasn’t going well, or rather, had never truly started. It felt impossible in this chilly weather to contemplate salads and bottled water instead of

Apart from the For Sale board, the house didn’t look any different from the last time I was here. Six months ago now. The day of my father’s funeral. A memory of how fragile my mother appeared that da

MUM, Dad, there’s something I need to ask you . . .” Chloe left the sentence hanging in mid-air. Tessa looked up from her crossword puzzle, noticing the troubled expression on her daughter’s face. Chl

STRAIGHT upstairs, Billy, and wash those hands. Chicken wings OK for tea?” “With barbecue sauce?” Billy licked his lips. “Yes. Be quick, now.” Dumping his muddy football boots by the door, Billy scoot

IT’S time to go to the police again,” Mark said. “That’s what I think.” “We all think that,” Lydia snapped. “We have all got that far, Mark.” The Denzell children glared at each other, then sighed and

IT was the same mother and child Gwen had smiled at earlier in the street, when she’d been heading for her afternoon shift at the charity shop. The only difference was, they both looked very tired. Th