Page 106 of The Edge of Always

‘Luna, Mae, we need to speak to you both.’

Luna would have had a bad feeling about this, but her life was already so full of bad feelings, she didn’t have space for more.

Her parents were at the cottage dining table. Their constant arguments had really taken their toll on her dad this year; he’d never really got over last year’s virus. Now, his ginger hair was grey and wiry at the sides.

‘What’s up?’ Even Mae seemed to realise that something serious was about to happen as she and Luna slid onto the other two chairs at the little round table.

Her dad twisted his hands together. Her mum sat up straight and said, ‘Well, I may as well just come out and say it. Your dad and I are getting a divorce.’

The word hung in the weak morning light. Possibly, Luna should be upset. Possibly, she should feel something negative about this. But all she felt was relief. Sheer relief. Her parents’ unhappy marriage had loomed large across her childhood. Every fun event punctuated by their sniping at each other, every happy day finite.

‘Okay,’ Mae said.

‘Okay?’ her Mum repeated back.

‘I mean, you guys haven’t exactly been a picture of everlasting love all these years. We thought you’d do it years ago.’

Luna’s dad began to cry, silent tears that made Luna feel something about this. It was pity. For everything they’d all been through over the years. Not together though, never together.

‘We may need to sell the cottage,’ their Mum said, and that one really did hurt.

The three of them, their dad, Luna and Mae, all began to speak at the same time. Protesting.

‘We agreed not to decide anything until we’ve spoken to solicitors, Jennie. There might be a way for me to keep it.’

‘You can’t sell it,’ Mae argued. Luna didn’t say anything. She knew that it was all too perfect. She was learning that she couldn’t have the things that she wanted.

‘Michael, you barely spend any time here, why do you want it?’

They began to argue again, but the anger in Luna’s mind drowned them out, a cacophony of negativity that made it impossible to think of anything other than how it felt as if everything was ending. And there was nothing that Luna could do to stop it.