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looked pained. ‘I promise, Sophie, it has nothing to do with me. He was just doing what he thought was best. Nobody thought he would . . .’ She suddenly bit her lip and turned her face away. ‘We honestly didn’t think that this . . . that we’d use this will. We thought we had years . . . for you to find a career path, for us to be together . . . for me to have a . . . anyway. Never mind about that.’
     
    I could hardly take in what she was saying. Mr Fortescue patted her on the arm.
     
    ‘And I know with everything . . . but did you even see the papers?’
     
    I had. There had been a story, ‘Cat Fight Spat with Party Brats’ in one of the papers, with a very glamorous picture of Carena getting a shoe thrown at her. It made me out to be an unstable idiot.
     
    ‘Well, let’s not talk about that now. But it has convinced me that your father’s will should stand.’
     
    Then she stared very hard at the desk, like she didn’t want to look at me any more.
     
    ‘Sophie,’ she said. ‘It’s in the will. You have to go and make your own living. For six months. Then we can review the situation. He loved you to bits, Sophie. But it didn’t always do you much good, and he knew that.’
     
    I staggered backwards, as if someone had thrown a punch. ‘What?’ I said. This didn’t make any sense.
     
    ‘Your dad . . . he was trying to make things better. You have to move out. Find your own way. It’s only for six months!’ she added, pleadingly.
     
    ‘But you can’t make me go,’ I said. ‘You can’t throw me out of my own home. Daddy can’t have meant that!’
     
    The lawyers were shuffling their feet and looking embarrassed. Gail handed me the will and I read it there in black and white. ‘For a period of not less than six months, the beneficiary will earn every aspect of her own living . . .’
     
    Gail still looked embarrassed. ‘You know what he was like with his ideas and schemes,’ she said. ‘He just felt you were wasting your life.’
     
    ‘But I was just having a good time,’ I said, truly shocked. OK, we went to parties and lunches and shopped a lot, but I thought he liked me doing those things. I thought every time he suggested I work harder on my career it was Gail being nasty to me.
     
    ‘Can’t I stay here?’ I asked, feeling the tears spring up.
     
    Gail shook her head. ‘Apparently I could make you pay rent,’ she said. ‘Rent on your room in this area is eighteen hundred pounds a month. Before bills and food.’
     
    I looked at her. ‘But you don’t have to do it, though, Gail? You’re not going to throw me out of my own home after I’ve just been orphaned?’
     
    There was a long pause, and I tried not to think of all the times I’d been horrid to her. She glanced at her lawyer again. ‘Sophie, I’m sorry. I am. Really. But . . . I agree with your dad.
     
    You’re twenty-five years old and still reliant on other people for everything. You won’t grow up. You can’t even use the washing machine or make yourself a cup of coffee. I think . . . I think it’s what you need.’
     
    I looked to Leonard for help, but he just smiled sadly at me and shook his head.
     
    ‘Of course, you can take time to find yourself a place to stay, and go back to your old job . . .’
     
    I didn’t have much confidence that my old job was still there - I hadn’t been to the studio for weeks. And seeing as it didn’t pay any money how was that going to help me now?
     
    I stumbled back upstairs in disbelief, then called down to Esperanza.
     
    ‘Esperanza, could you please get me a non-fat soya latte?’
     
    There was a long pause on the phone.
     
    ‘Please?’ I added again.
     
    There was another pause. Then, ‘I’m sorry, Miss Sophie. I was told not to do anything for you now.’
     
    ‘What do you mean?’
     
    ‘Your mother . . . she says no more coffee, no food, no cleaning in your rooms.’
     
    ‘You are joking.’
     
    Suddenly, I realised I couldn’t