She also paused with her fork and raised her head.

“Bay, you don’t have to be sorry. You couldn’t have known. I should have locked the door.”

I was ashamed of myself for breaking the photo. Maybe it meant a lot to her and there was no copy. Or just the fact that I had touched it, gone through her old things.

I had intended to ask her if I could borrow some books from time to time, but now that was out of the question for me. Never again would I take a step into that room. Something like before should not happen again.

I gritted my teeth.

“You don’t have to talk to me about it. I shouldn’t have walked in. I should have kept looking for the bathroom instead.”

Mum didn’t answer me, but her expression softened a little.

“Can we go to that market together on Wednesday that you told me about?”

From the change of subject, I hoped to take her mind off things.

She started eating again.

“Yes, I’d love to.” Her voice had softened. “I need something for the cake anyway.”

I guess I had kind of blocked it out, but now I remembered that Friday was my birthday.

I bit my tongue.

Please not... I didn’t like my birthday because I remembered all too well the days when I had celebrated it.

I was seven years old and had invited all my friends – at least, I was convinced at the time that they were my friends. No one came, and no one showed up for my ninth birthday either. Since then, I had stopped having parties.

In retrospect, it had turned out that all these kids had been at the party of my then best friend Olivia, who had always celebrated on the same day as me on purpose, but after finding out I simply didn’t have the desire for any more parties.

“There’s also a bookstore near the market. If you want...”

“Yes!” it escaped me, and I just managed to keep my delighted tone in check.

Ever since I was a little girl, I loved to spend time with books. It was something like my passion, from the very beginning, and I mostly lived in a wide variety of literary worlds, from classic literature to crime novels to fantasy novels, even if it had taken me a long time to get into the last category.

“And if you need anything else for university, let me know. Then I’ll show you the stationery store.”

By now, Mum was smiling again, and I was glad that the mood wasn’t so glum anymore. And even though I didn’t like it when she tried to make conversation to cover up something else, it was okay. For now.

“Oh, and tomorrow night, we’ll have guests. I’ll be cooking. Please be nice to the Bardots.”

The look on her face told me she was serious. With that, I also knew immediately who the Bardots must be.

“You’re inviting the neighbors? Both of them?”

I had no problem with the cop. He seemed like a nice man. But his son?

“All four of them.”

I choked on a noodle and reached for the water glass.

“All four of them?”

Mum smiled. “Graham’s mother, Rosalie, will be there, too.”

“And who’s number four?” I echoed, hoping there wasn’t another annoyingly grinning one.

“Julian’s sister. She’s two years younger than you and a very kind girl.”

Relieved, I expelled the pent-up air and brought the glass back to my lips.

“Please behave a little more tomorrow than you did at noon today. The Bardots are nice neighbors.”

Behave?

I didn’t have the very best manners; however, I wasn’t a toddler anymore either.

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll just build a tower of potatoes and throw silverware around. The usual.”

I grinned, earning a warning look from my mother.

“Lucky for you, there will be no potatoes, young lady!”

“What are you going to cook?”

I was hoping for steak and fries or noodle and cheese casserole. The mere thought of cheese made my mouth water. Especially if my Mum was cooking it...

No wonder my thoughts were all about food when I had only eaten one noodle so far and choked on it, too. My hunger had returned.

Mum just said with a wink, “Let me surprise you.”

Dissatisfied, I snorted. She ignored it, aware of my pickiness.

I finished eating, then cleared my plate and Mum’s. Afterward, I kissed my mother goodnight on the cheek, before I disappeared upstairs, exhausted from this first day, put on comfortable sleeping clothes and slipped under the covers, overcome by tiredness.

The lovely melody of a piano reached my ears and woke me up for good. A few seconds later, the back pain set in.

This bed was damn uncomfortable because the mattress was way too soft. One slid literally into a wide hollow. At some point, I had squeezed a pillow under my back. And that had been a huge mistake.

Now I was lying here, in the middle of a bed that didn’t belong to me, living in a house that I hadn’t known about until yesterday, and plagued by pain in places where I had never felt pain before.

Groaning, I straightened up and again perceived that soft sound.

I looked at my watch. It was only seven o’clock.

Who was listening to piano music at this hour?