‘Anyway, you’re probably wondering what I’m… Well, the thing is, I was just watchingKey to My Heart.I was wondering… It was odd, because, haha, I don’t know if you knew this, but I was sort of giving Callie and that Sam guy a baking lesson on camera, for, for the show, but now, the baker isn’t…’
Christine’s glare deepened. ‘Are you telling me you didn’t know? You didn’t ask her to do it?’
Mae’s eyes were wide. ‘Do what?’
‘Do you have any idea what this means?’
Mae frowned. ‘I—’
‘I’lltellyou what it means,’ Christine cut in, voice rising. ‘Callie isn’t going to winKey to My Heartnow. Not after shedestroyed that bloody stupid card and got punished for it. The bonus winners get? Gone. And do you know what that does tome? Half the rent I’ve been relying on from her?Gone.’
Mae’s mouth went dry. She wanted to speak, to defend herself. Trouble was, she didn’t know what she was defending.
‘I know it was you,’ the angry woman continued. ‘It was alwaysyou. She was always running off to you when she should have been here. And now I have to work full-time hours again to keep up with the rent because her ladyship has told me the “gravy train has been discontinued.” As if she didn’t owe me after she left me in the lurch—’
From behind her came a low, incredulous voice. ‘Wait.What?’
Christine turned to see her husband jogging down the stairs. Mae couldn’t see her expression anymore, but her voice sounded like it had nervous sweat running down it.
‘I thought you were out?’ she said, her voice a lot higher than it had been a moment ago.
Brian stared at his wife. ‘How many hours have you been working? While I’ve been doing deliveries for forty-five?’
She quickly slipped into another gear. ‘Brian. Come on, now. Did youreallythink I could run this houseandlook after Hannahanddo forty hours at the supermarket on top?’
Brian shook his head, disbelief written across his face. ‘I… why, I didn’t… You said—’
‘And is having a go at me going to fixanything?’ Christine shouted, hands flailing.
For a split second, Brian shrank back. But then his spine seemed to clear its throat, and he stood tall again. ‘Don’t youdaretry to make this my fault. You lied!’ Brian exclaimed, finding his voice. ‘And it’s not the first time! I know you didn’t ask your son to come home for Christmas when I asked you to.’
‘What?’
‘Yes. I called him to try and convince him because he’s a lovely kid and I’d like to see him again. He told me he hadn’t heard from you inages.’
Christine groaned. ‘You don’t get it. He just causes problems. Everything is difficult with him. It would spoil Christmas.’
Brian looked at his wife in horror. ‘What thehellis wrong with you?!’
Christine’s shocked pause seemed a good moment to skedaddle. ‘I… I’ll leave you to it,’ Mae said, reaching in and closing the door on the argument.
She set back off for home, mind racing.
A lot had been said, but one fact was extractable from the mess. Callie had destroyed the footage. And paid a price for it. Because Neil had told her that Callie was going to win. And she’d chucked it, the win, the money…
Mae had answers, but still, she didn’t understand.
No, that wasn’t true. She did understand. She understood completely. She just didn’t know what to do with it.
Thirty-Eight
A week after the homecoming ep aired, Callie stood under studio lights so bright they flattened everything into unreality. But she supposed that was apt.
The final ofKey to My Heartwas nothing like the rest of it. No house set, no pretending people were falling accidentally in love in rattan swing chairs. This was a stage with tiered seating packed with a real audience of blurred faces beyond the lights. It wasn’t technically live; it would go out next week, but it felt like it. They were shooting straight through, no cuts unless someone straight up died. Callie slightly hoped that someone would be her.
Callie and Priya were positioned on matching stools, angled slightly towards Sam, who stood centre-stage looking waxed and in a way that suggested a lot of professional grooming had gone into making him look like a man torn between two women.
Priya leaned over, close enough that her hair brushed Callie’s arm.
