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touched a nerve, damn him. In the past Katie
would
have had the house tidy and tea on the table when Charlie walked in. To her that was part of the deal. She was the one at home, after all, it only seemed reasonable to cook the bacon for the person who provided it.
    Emily had never got on with that attitude. ‘It just seems so regressive,’ she'd frequently said to Katie over a glass of wine when Charlie was away on business.
    Katie had shrugged her shoulders.
    ‘I don't expect you to understand,’ she'd said. ‘But if you knew my mum, you would. She put her career above everything: her marriage, her family. It tore our family apart. I'm never going to do that.’
    Katie had had feminism shoved down her throat from an early age, and was sufficiently her mother's daughter to buy into the career dream until she'd met and fallen for Charlie. The minute she knew she wanted to have children with him was the day Katie said goodbye to her career. She was not going to make the same mistakes as her mum. Her children and husband would always come first. The trouble was, no one had told her how hard that would be. Or that she'd feel a small part of herself dying every day, subsumed into becoming someone's wife, someone's mother. What had happened to Katie? No one really cared any more …
    ‘Let me know when it's ready,’ said Charlie, grabbing an applefrom the fruit bowl. ‘I've just got to go online and check some deals out.’
    ‘What now?’ Katie was dismayed. She was rather hoping that Charlie might join her in the kitchen and share a glass of wine with her as she cooked, like they used to do. She knew she should be glad about Charlie's recent promotion, as it meant more money and security, but his job was beginning to take over their life. The company seemed to be expanding at an alarming rate. Charlie's whole topic of conversation these days seemed to be about acquisitions and mergers, and he was away on business more than he was home.
    ‘Five minutes, tops,’ he said, already heading for the stairs.
    Katie sighed. The chances were she wouldn't see him for another hour.
    ‘I'll just get on with the tea, then,’ she said disconsolately.
    ‘Okay,’ said Charlie. ‘At least it's not chips.’
    ‘Why?’ Katie had a feeling she knew where this was going. Charlie had been having little digs for weeks now.
    ‘Oh, nothing,’ said Charlie sheepishly, stopping on the half-landing
    ‘Don't do that,’ retorted Katie. ‘Tell me what you meant.’
    Charlie looked a little embarrassed. ‘I was only joking.’
    ‘About what?’ Katie's tone was icy. Even Charlie, who had the skin of a rhino, picked up on it.
    ‘It's just … Since Molly …’ Charlie was looking like he'd rather be anywhere than here. ‘You didn't used to be – it's just that – well, you're looking a bit more cuddly these days.’
    ‘You mean I'm fat.’ Kate felt as if she had been punched in the stomach.
    ‘No. No. Not fat.’ Charlie was desperately trying to recover the situation. ‘It's – well, I mean, after the boys you lost weight much more quickly. Anyway, cuddly's good. You know I don't like skinny women.’
    His voice trailed off. And it was true. In the past she hadmanaged to shed the baby weight in a few months, but this time around it seemed not to want to budge.
    ‘You think I'm fat.’ It was a statement. Not a question.
    ‘Nooo – not fat exactly, but you have to admit it, love, you're a – a tad on the lardy side. Nothing that a few weeks on a diet won't cure.’
    The comment was delivered in a manner that was clearly intended to be light and humorous, but the result was anything but.
    Katie stood open-mouthed as Charlie disappeared upstairs. Not for the first time she wondered if workload was the thing that really kept him late at the office …
    ‘How was your day?’ Rob greeted Mark as he came through the front door.
    It had been a long day and Mark was glad to be home, even if it wasn't quite the home he