Chapter 7
Hana drove back to the school with Phoenix awake in the car seat. She parked in the visitors’ car park outside the main reception, ignoring the old Mazda in her former space outside the Chapel. Life at the school had moved on without her, its surface sealing over as though she hadn’t donated fifteen years of her life to its insatiable cause.
She carried the baby seat into the reception, already feeling like an outsider. The receptionist stopped her halfway across the lobby. “You need a name tag,” she bit. “You can’t come and go as you please.”
Hana swallowed and turned to face her. “I live on site,” she replied. “You know who I am.”
The woman shook her greying head and clipped a plastic tag to the front of Hana’s jacket. “It’s health and safety,” she insisted, patting the eno
