CHAPTER 13
I FLEW BACK in time sixteen years, to the day after my eleventh birthday. Mother had thrown me a huge party with circus performers, pony rides, and even a bloody ice sculpture—anything she could use to claim one-upmanship over all the other tennis club mums. It had turned into a bit of a contest that year, with one renting out an entire cinema and another hiring a TV chef to prepare the jelly and ice cream. Or rather, the vanilla panna cotta and sorbet.
Of course, as Mother had also been in charge of the guest list, she hadn’t worried about inviting my actual friends, just the children of people she wanted to make an impression on. And that meant my best friend, Ben, got left out. As a scholarship student at the ridiculously expensive prep school Angie and I attended, Ben’s pa
