She probably had the whole thing written in her head, Claire thought. Maybe she even had it filed away, like a newspaper obituary, just waiting for the opportune moment to whip it out.
Luca put a mug of hot tea in front of Claire, then sat beside her with his own mug and a plate of toast topped with scrambled eggs. He pushed the plate between them, and Claire reached out automatically and took a piece. The eggs were buttery and comforting, and as soon as she started eating, she discovered she was hungry.
‘This is really good, thank you,’ she said softly.
Luca smiled at her in response.
‘You should have said you were hungry, Claire,’ Michelle said. ‘I’d have got you something.’
‘I didn’t know I was.’
‘Okay,’ Liz said, looking through her list, ‘so as soon as we’re ready, Neil and Claire will go to the funeral director’s and get the ball rolling. Ronan will talk to the priest and I’ll stay here and man the phones, let everyone know, and organise the caterers.’
‘Do you know where Mum’s will is?’ Neil asked Claire.
‘I’m not sure, but it’s probably in the safe.’
‘There’s no rush, but you should try to dig it out in the next couple of days.’
Michelle poured herself more tea. ‘Of course the house will have to be sold,’ she said.
Claire flinched, and Luca put an arm around her, scowling at Michelle.
‘Michelle!’ Neil chided, rolling his eyes in Claire’s direction.
‘I’m just saying! Sorry, Claire, I don’t mean to sound callous, but I’m only stating facts.’
‘We don’t have to think about that now,’ Ronan said, glaring at her.
‘No, of course not. I’m just being practical. I mean, Claire knows the house is left between the three of you. I didn’t mean any harm,’ she said to Claire. ‘You know that, don’t you?’
‘Yes, it’s fine,’ Claire said dully, clenching her fists under the table.
‘Sure, you won’t know yourself now you can have a bit of independence. Find yourself a nice little apartment somewhere.’
‘Yeah, brilliant,’ Claire whispered, wishing her mother was there to make one of her dry comebacks that would go right over Michelle’s stupid head. She couldn’t stop the silent tears that rolled down her cheeks.
‘You could even move to London, like you always planned.’
Luca’s eyes darted to Claire, and he looked surprised.
‘Well,’ Neil said awkwardly, ‘if you’re ready, we should go to the funeral director’s.’
‘Yeah. I’ll just brush my teeth,’ Claire said, anxious to be off. She had no will to fight, but she didn’t want to spend another minute with Michelle.
‘Anything I can do?’ Luca asked, as she got up to go.
‘No, there isn’t – but thanks. You don’t need to hang around here all day.’
‘I can come back tonight, if you like – stay with you again?’
‘Yes,’ she breathed, in relief. ‘I’d really like that.’
On her way out to the car with Neil, she checked her bag for her mobile to make sure she had it with her. She was surprised to see she’d missed a couple of calls from Mark, and there was a message from him on her voicemail.
‘Hi, Claire, I know you probably don’t want to speak to me right now, but please ring me back when you get this. We need to talk. Just call me back, okay?’
She frowned, perplexed. He sounded agitated. But why would he think she didn’t want to speak to him? He seemed to have decided she’d been deliberately avoiding his calls. It was almost as if he knew what was going on, but he couldn’t possibly. She rang him back in the car.
