“What?”
“A numpty. A few pennies short of a pound. This is the numpty line.”
He snatched his hand away and scowled at me as the whole table started laughing, including the previously sombre twins. “You aresoannoying,” Max snapped, then turned to Mum. “Mam, tell her she’s not to tease me when I’m worried about a bid.”
“Darling, it’s not my fault if you’re a gullible numpty,” Mum said, and I gave a sombre nod.
“The numpty line doesn’t lie, Max. I hate to tell you this, but I’ve known for a while.”
“Yeah, mate,” Heath put in through a smile. “We all have.”
Driving back though I could feel Heath’s mood darken, see the tension return to his shoulders. Both he and Verity looked pale and were uncharacteristically quiet when we returned to the house. Winnie, who, after the sausage, trusted me enough to pick her up, whimpered in my arms – even the dog didn’t want to go back in there.
A wave of frustration swept over me. This wasn’t fair. There was real trauma here in this house. The twins shouldn’t have to go through this. That’s why, after we’d exited the vehicles and started walking back to the front door, I stopped in my tracks on the drive, grabbing Heath’s arm to bring him to a stop as well.
“Right, this is nutballs,” I snapped. Everyone else drew to a halt to look at me.
“What’s nutballs?” Mia asked.
“You two,” I pointed at Heath and Verity, “have more money than God, right?” Apparently the twins had inherited nearly all of their grandparents’ money in trust funds that they accessed at eighteen. I could understand why the grandparents might want to bypass their own children.
Verity rolled her eyes and Heath cracked a small smile.
“Right,” Heath said when I raised my eyebrows.
“Well, I refuse to let you both go back inside that hell hole, it’s not fit for a manky badger. There are plenty of companies that will deal with all this crap. Get someone in to strip the house bare. There’s nothing in there that you need.”
“There might be valuable things, love,” Dad said. I shook my head.
“Maybe there are, maybe there aren’t, but the fact remains that Heath and Verity don’tneedany more money. I doubt they’d even want any money associated with that house, those… people.” I refused to call them parents. Nothing I’d seen or heard about them so far qualified them for that title.
“We don’t want the money,” Verity’s voice cut through my anger and I jerked in surprise – she hadn’t really spoken since we arrived. “Not for ourselves anyway.”
“V and I have donated the house to a charity that runs retreats for underprivileged kids. The stuff inside we’re collecting to sell and donate the proceeds to them as well. If we don’t go through it, then we might not get as much money.”
I took a few steps forward, gently handed Winnie to Mia and turned to Heath before taking his hand and giving it a squeeze.
“You’re not going back into that fucking house ever again,” I said, my voice soft but firm.
“Yaz–” Verity started, but I cut her off.
“Neither of you are, right?Wecan check there’s nothing the house clearers are going to nick. We – the Hardcastles – will be going back in. You two will not be.” I gave Heath’s hand another squeeze and he closed his fingers around mine, which I took as an encouraging sign.
“We need to–” Heath said but stopped when Verity laid her hand on his other arm.
“Let’s just go to the shed, Heathy. Anything we cared about would be there. I doubt they ever bothered to clear it out.”
“Verity I–”
“Let them help,” she whispered.
Heath scanned his sister's face. Another unspoken conversation passed between them before he sighed and gave a brief nod.
“Okay, so whilst you lot were arguing over the bill as usual, I looked up numbers for firms to do this shizzle – in fact, Imighthave already booked one to come today…” I trailed off as a large van followed by a skip started rumbling up the driveway. Perfect timing.
Heath blinked and everyone’s mouths dropped open in shock. “I… er–”
“Christ, Midge,” Max said. “Since when were you so bloody organised?”
