Page 132 of Good Sisters

I leaned over and held her hands. ‘Jess, you are the light and love of my life. I am crazy proud of you. Please don’t ever forget that. It was wrong of me to be so hard on you and put you under so much pressure. It isn’t fair and it’s my bad. As for the photo, we all make mistakes – God knows I’ve made a lot – but it’s how we handle them that matters. I love you so much. I should tell you that more often too.’

‘It’s okay, Mum. I know you just want me to have the bestlife possible and to be secure. I get it. But if you wanted to pull back a bit on the nagging, I’d be fine with that too.’ She grinned.

We heard the front door open and the sound of Jack and Robert’s voices. Jess and I wiped our eyes and went down to greet them. I watched Jess swing Robert around as he squealed with delight.

My heart was full. My beautiful family. We were by no means perfect. We had been battered and bruised by life. We had broken up, then Sellotaped ourselves back together. We had learned from our mistakes and we had found each other again. We might not all be biologically related, but we had love in abundance, and we had grit. We had weathered storms before and come out the other side. This storm would pass too and, all going well, Sebastian Carter-Mills would sink without a trace.

31. Julie

The weak early-morning light seeped through the curtains. I chewed on my already bitten thumbnail. It was almost down to the quick. The argument with Sophie had really thrown me.

‘Harry!’ I said. ‘Are you asleep?’ I poked him in the back.

‘Well, if I was, I bloody well amn’t now.’

‘Was I wrong not to tell Sophie about Jess?’

Harry groaned. ‘Julie, we went over this a million times last night, and my answer is still the same. You were trying to protect both Jess and Sophie. Your intentions were good but, unfortunately, because of the bloody photo, Sophie found out. Should you have told her? Maybe. It was a very tough one to call.’

‘You should have seen her face, Harry. She was absolutely devastated. I’m really worried about her. She has so much going on with Pippa and Robert, and now Jess.’

‘Sophie is stronger than she looks, you know that.’

‘Yes, but –’ My phone buzzed.

‘Leave it. It’s probably another snippy message from Victoria on the rugby WhatsApp.’

Ignoring Harry, I picked up my phone. It was too early for the rugby WhatsApp group. I was right. It was Louise on our Devlin sibling WhatsApp:Have a plan. Meet for coffee in Fresh and Green 9 sharp. I have a meeting at 9.30.

Then a text to me from Sophie:We need to talk. Meet me at 8.30, b4 Louise.

I quickly typed:I’ll be there.

I turned to Harry. ‘Sophie wants to meet for a chat. Then we’re meeting Louise, who has a plan.’

‘I hope it involves exonerating Liam and getting him back on the team,’ Harry grumbled.

‘Me too. If anyone can sort this mess out, Louise can. Okay, I’d better get moving.’

I hopped out of bed and had a long, hot shower, praying that Sophie had cooled down overnight and wasn’t going to rip my head off again. I hated falling out with my sisters, or anyone for that matter. I hated confrontation of any kind. I was the peacemaker in the family so this was new territory for me.

I arrived early. There was no way I’d be late for this meeting. I ordered a latte and a skinny oat milk cappuccino for Sophie. She slipped into the café and sat opposite me. She looked almost as exhausted as I did, even with her perfectly applied make-up.

‘I got you a coffee – don’t worry, it’s oat milk.’

‘Thanks.’

‘Look, Sophie, I’m sorry. I’m sorry you feel let down. I’m sorry you feel I hid something so monumental from you. I honestly thought I was helping Jess and not adding stress to your full plate.’

Sophie pursed her lips. ‘But you didn’t help me or Jess. If you’d told me, I could have had a proper conversation with Jess and she might have told me about the photo and we could have sorted it out. And I would have been vigilant about Sebastian and whether she was seeing him. Instead, you omitted to tell me and let me think that nothing had happened that night. Now there is a huge mess. I also think you didn’t tell me because you knew that you’d messed up by allowing an underage couple to go into a bedroom in yourhouse where anything could have happened. He could have raped her, Julie. They could have had consensual sex and she could be pregnant. He could have filmed her … So many horrendous things could have happened on your watch.’

I put my cup down. ‘I know I said I’d keep an eye on her, but come on, Sophie, you saw how many guests I had. You knew it was chaos. I fully admit I took my eye off Jess and I feel absolutely terrible about it, but she made those choices herself.’

‘I trusted my only child with you. She’s all I have, Julie. She’s my world. If anything happened to Jess, I would literally die.’

I tried not to get upset. I needed to stay calm. ‘I know how much she means to you and all I can say is that I’m sorry. She was so upset and begged so hard for me not to upset you that I caved. I realize now that I shouldn’t have. How is she?’

Sophie wiped a tear from her eye. ‘She is absolutely devastated, mortified, ashamed and crushed. She feels so betrayed by that little shit. But we had an honest chat, and I think once we can get hold of that photo and control the story, she’ll be able to move on. But we have to stop the photo going viral.’

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