Darker London

It turned out skipping school was easier than Andy had thought it would be. The day after she handed in a note forged in her dad's handwriting and that was the end of it. No one suspected, no one asked anything. It was almost too easy and it gave Andy a little thrill. (Andy wasn't a bad girl. Andy liked the idea of being the sexy rebel but she was always just a little wary of straying outside the lines.)

She thought about taking another day off and doing the same she'd done before - which was walking around the city, trying on outfits and browsing shops - but she knew that she had to be careful. Too often would get her caught out. Although if anyone even noticed her being not there, Andy was pretty sure it would be a miracle.

( ... )

Five months ago Hector had been living in a slowly falling apart two-bedroom flat with his mother and sister in Dagenham and on the verge of getting kicked out of his school there. In that house they could barely keep the shower running with its frequent issues: now they lived in a house with three bathrooms.

They all got their own bedrooms here. There was a backyard and a pool and if you were on one end of the house, you couldn't just call out to people at the other end. And they had a housekeeper who came in to clean it all up once a week. The biggest difference, Hector thought, was that his mum laughed now. Aadhya was always serious and tired and blank, but here she smiled and when she cooked them dinner she sang again. It had been a long time since she'd sung around the house, not since a dozen terrible jobs ago at least.

Funny what difference a few million pounds made.

( Five months ago Aadhya had sat the two of them down and explained it all very calmly )