Without warning, the door crashed open behind her, startling her as it knocked over a chair, and she turned round angrily to see who it was. Her brother stood in the doorway. The barely contained anger in his face jarred sharply with the quiet of the room. Without acknowledging him, Bella turned back to the desk and calmly addressed the envelope. Her silence only provoked him more, as she had known it would. Even when they were young, she had been able to wind him up to breaking point‚ and old habits died hard. ‘Why didn’t you tell me I had a child?’ he demanded furiously, slamming the door behind him. ‘You must have known.’ It wasn’t the question Bella had been expecting, but she hid her surprise well. ‘Of course I knew. Grace told me.’ ‘Did it never occur to you to mention it?’ ‘You made it clear to me that you’d left here for good, so what would have been the point?’ ‘I had a right to know, that’s the point.’ He walked over to the desk and looked down at her.
