Once again, Rupert found himself eating on his own. For the first few nights, following Kat’s return, the three of them sat, a motley crew around the table — an anxious Rupert, a sedated Kat and Neti, who was able to deliver both bonhomie to her mother and a vicious patronising of her uncle in the one breath. None of them could sustain it for long.
Rupert marvelled at the speed at which Neti adjusted to the presence of the mother she had never really known, the woman who had abandoned her.
The day Kat had returned, Rupert had fretted so much about the reunion between mother and daughter that he felt physically ill. When he had waited for Neti outside the school, he was shaking. She had run to the car, slammed the door quickly behind her and sat with her body leaning forward, barely ackno
