The Children 2 (Pages 82 - 171)

 SPOILERS!!!

We get to know the characters little by little. Laurel and Spin come to stay for two weeks, an idea which Charlotte doesn't like. However, as Charlotte gets to know Laural, she starts to like her more and more. The women in this family are all peculiar in their way. Sally has bouts of depression; Joan tends to, what her daughters call, self-promote herself, boasting about what she does, and at the same time she neglects the house. And Charlotte's character is so complex. First, she runs a blog for mothers, claiming to be a mother herself with a special-needs son, and she needs to dissuade those mothers when they offer to run an auction to collect money for the son. Yet, they decide to have the auction to collect money for a hospital which specialises in Charlotte's imaginary child. Charlotte doesn't feel right about this, but she tells herself that she is not taking a cent they will collect. THings are not so straightforward. Charlotte has an online friend, Matt, who tells her to watch out for one of the mothers, Liza. It seems that Matt works for his country's government. Charlotte tells Matt that Lisa has been a regular on the blog, but Matt says that she needs to check the spelling. She then realisas that there was a regular called Liza, but this one is Lisa.

This mother could be the woman Everett is seeing. Charlotte tells Laurel that she and Everett used to be together, but now they are not exclusive. And she does know that he is seeing a married woman, called Lisa, who has a cottage nearby. This is something that Charlotte has found out from hacking into Everett's computer. Laurel tells her that she needs to get past her fears and not to let her feelings defeat her. Charlotte never leaves the property, but then the new trooper, Washington Fuentes, drops in because he wants to talk to Everett because a bat has got into his house and he is afraid. Without thinking about it twice, Charlotte goes with him and helps him get rid of the bat. This seems to be a turning point because when Everett finds Charlotte gone, he gets jealous and is more attentive towards her. So I have the idea that Lisa mum is the woman Everett is seeing, and maybe something changed between them because of Charlotte, and she may intend to do something to hurt Charlotte.