If this was the books, we'd be up to around Book 8. But there's not a lot that happens in Book 8 that Stephanie would be involved in if she wasn't a bounty hunter. So we'll see how it goes, and don't worry, it will meet back up with the books eventually.

Over the next few weeks I concentrated on my product launch. Val helped out with the administrative side of the business while the girls were at school, and I was happy to have her helping although most of my profits were going towards paying her.

Ella finished working for me after her notice period was complete. She'd given me two weeks warning so I could find someone else. Except I didn't want anyone else, I wanted Ella back. I looked forward to her coming every week, to the shiny clean house on Mondays and the container of cookies, and chatting away to Ella about her week. She was always interested in what I was doing. I hoped that her new job worked out for her. Luckily Plum Vintage was selling well and Plum Blossoms was still popular, so I didn't have too much time to sulk about the loss of Ella. The dust bunnies were piling up under the bed at a surprising rate though.

I wondered what Ranger was up to. I googled RangerMan LLC but I didn't find out much except that their website was as mysterious as Ranger himself, which wasn't that great from a marketing viewpoint, and it seemed to be a high end security company. I remembered what Ranger said about the lock on our door and wondered if I should look into upgrading our security. Dickie was travelling more frequently, and his work sometimes attracted bad attention – along with the unresolved issue of him working for Alexander Ramos. I wondered if I should text Ranger and say I was thinking about a security system. I decided to bring it up with Dickie.

"Do you think we need to install an alarm system?" I asked him over breakfast the next morning. He was drinking coffee and reading emails on his phone. I was up early, enjoying the quiet before Mary Alice came galloping down the stairs.

"Uh… why?"

"For security? I mean you travel a lot and I'm alone in the house. Do you think we need one?"

"Not really. But you can look into it if you want to," Dickie said.

Well that didn't help.

It was Val's moving day. She didn't have too much to move – no furniture. The girls had a little more than the suitcase each they'd arrived with, mostly extra clothes. Val explained that she'd left most of the furniture in the house, and had left sentimental items in a storage unit.

Val was nervous about living on her own. I don't know if Val had ever lived on her own – she moved out of home to college where she lived with room mates, then got married and moved in with Steve (please note – Saint Valerie did it in that order, no living in sin for her), and then out with Steve and in with me. Val wasn't used to being the only adult in the house and it was a big thing for her.

We managed to fit everything into my Mercedes and Big Blue the Buick, and made it in one trip over. Our mother was there, ready and waiting with cleaning supplies although the house looked spotless already – no Burg housewife would dare leave housesitters with an unclean house.

"This is nice and close to our house! The girls can come around every day after school," my mother said, beaming. Having her grandchildren so close to home was a dream come true. Grandma Mazur snuck in behind her.

"Did they leave much behind?" she asked. "I'm going to go check out their underwear drawers, make sure it's all cleared out for you." Grandma disappeared off to snoop around upstairs, and the girls disappeared down to the basement to discover the television and all the toys that the Olsens had for their grandchildren.

The house was nearly identical to our parents, but there was enough space for everyone to have a bedroom each, and a finished basement, complete with second toilet. It seems that everyone except for my parents has figured out the toilet to people ratio has a direct impact on happiness.

Mary Lou and her boys came around with a welcome basket. The boys disappeared downstairs to investigate the basement. I checked on them a few minutes later – Kenny and Angie were watching TV, and Mary Alice was giving Mikey pony rides.

Mom and I helped Val unpack while Mary Lou set up the kitchen and unpacked groceries that Mom and Grandma had with them. Since Val didn't have too much, it didn't take us long. Mom and Grandma left in order to start dinner, and reminded Val that dinner was at six, like always. Val was only two streets away, so she and the girls would walk over.

Mary Lou managed to gather her boys up out of the basement (apparently the Olsens had an awesome toy collection - "There's even Lego!" Kenny told me) and herded them towards the door.

"We usually walk to school on the days that I don't work," Mary Lou told Val. "Do you want to walk together on Monday?"

"That would be great, we'd love to," Val said. I felt a bit jealous. While I didn't want to be doing school pick-up, I would like to hang out with Mary Lou more often.

Mary Alice opened the front door to let everyone out and squealed.

"It's Joe! And he has his dog!" she yelled and ran out into the front yard. The rest of the kids ran after her and swarmed on Morelli and Bob. Morelli looked a bit confused and Bob looked like he was having the time of his life. He even licked the snack remains off of Mikey's face and cleaned him up a bit.

Mary Lou, Val and I followed the kids outside to rescue Morelli.

"Hi Mary Lou, Steph, Val," he said.

"Hi Joe," Mary Lou said, trying to untangled her kids from the pile.

"Detective Morelli, do you have a gun? Do you shoot bad guys? Is Bob a police dog?" Kenny asked.

"Do you know Batman?" Mikey asked, showing why I'm his Godmother.

"Can I pat Bob?" Mary Alice asked, although she was already hugging Bob.

"Hello Detective Morelli, it's nice to see you again. Would you like to come inside?" Angie asked. That one was definitely a Burg housewife in training.

"I have a gun, I try not to shoot anyone, Bob isn't a police dog but you can pat him, I don't know Batman and no thank you, Angie, I've got to take Bob for a walk before I start work tonight," Morelli answered.

"Won't Bob be lonely all on his own?" Mary Alice asked.

"He'll be fine. He usually just sleeps," Morelli told her.

"We could take Bob for you overnight," Val offered. Mary Lou and I looked at her and then at each other. Mary Lou raised her eyebrows and did a slight head incline towards Morelli. I agreed. This was weird.

"Thanks for the offer Val, but sometimes he eats couches. We're still working on his training," Morelli said. Mary Alice hugged Bob. Morelli and Bob jogged off, Mary Lou and her boys walked off down the street, and I hugged Val and my nieces goodbye.

"I'll see you for work on Monday, Val. Let me know if you need anything," I said, but I was also breathing a sigh of relief. Val was only two streets away from our parents, and could easily go to them for help. I was safely fifteen minutes away and if you're from the Burg, that's an eternity.

Dickie's car was in the garage when I got him, and Dickie was sprawled across the couch in his boxer shorts. I guess he was enjoying having the house back to ourselves again. First Grandma, then Val and the girls, made for a long time of house guests.

"It's so quiet in the house," I told Dickie.

"And it feels so big!"

"And there's no toys scattered everywhere."

"And no horse noises."

"You know, if we had a girl, she'd probably be exactly like Mary Alice," I told Dickie.

"What, and think she was a horse? Do you think we could train her to eat the grass in the courtyard?" Dickie asked. He was in a playful mood. I snuggled into the couch beside him.

"What do you feel like doing tonight?" I asked.

"Thai food and ghost busters night?" he asked me.

"My favourites," I said. I went to find the DVD while he made the order.

We spent the rest of the weekend reclaiming our no children adult lifestyle by ordering takeaway for all meals, watching a lot of TV and spending a lot of time in bed.

On Monday, Val asked me to go with her to her meeting with her divorce lawyer, Rebecca. I was a bit concerned, mostly because Rebecca had the last of my redundancy payout, and my business wasn't generating enough money yet for me to pay out any more, and I didn't want to ask Dickie for a handout. I could just hear it now – you should be more responsible with your money Stephanie, blah blah blah.

Rebecca was smiling, which I took to be some positive news. Val reached out and grabbed my hand as we sat down. I squeezed her hand for support.

"There's good news and there's bad news," Rebecca said. "The bad news is that the bank has foreclosed on your house due to mortgage payments not being made. But the good news is that we've tracked down your husband, and more importantly, his bank accounts. They weren't as well hidden as he thought they were."

"What does that mean?" Val asked her.

"It means that we can file for divorce, and serve Steve with the papers. It also means that we can apply to have the bank accounts frozen while we discuss settlement terms. Given that he left without warning and emptied your bank accounts, I don't think we'll have any trouble getting a judge to agree to that," said Rebecca. She had a gleam in her eye. I had a feeling that there was a bad break-up somewhere in her past and she enjoyed every time she got to seek revenge on someone's behalf.

"How long will it take?' Val asked.

"It will probably take a few months, but I'm going to make sure that Steve knows that it is in his best interests to make this happen quickly. He'll try to stall because he knows he left you without money and he'll think you're desperate for a quick settlement. If you can hold out two months, it will put us in a better position. What do you want to do?" Rebecca asked.

"I'm okay for money for now," Val said cautiously, "I'm house sitting, so we don't have rent, and I work part-time for Steph, and my parents are helping out a little too. We can't do this forever, but we can do it for a little while."

"Excellent," Rebecca grinned, and handed over some papers for Val to sign. "Sign these where it's marked, and we can get the process underway." Val signed, her hand a bit shaky.

We left the office and stopped for lunch nearby. Val was having second thoughts.

"It just seems so final, Steph. I mean what if Steve wants to work things out?"

"Val, if he wanted to work it out, he could get in contact with you. But he's shacked up somewhere with your babysitter and all your money. None of that says that he wants to work it out."

"I guess I just have to work on moving on," Val said.

"You can do it, Val. You and the girls will be fine without him. Look how well you're doing so far," I told her. She nodded.

"You're right! We have a house, a school the girls are happy at, they're seeing their grandparents all the time, and we're making friends in the neighbourhood. It's not the life I expected, but we're doing fine."

"That's it"! I told her.

"And I need to start dating again," she told me. I rolled my eyes. Val's current problem was caused by a man, I didn't see that adding another man to it was going to solve anything.

"Sure, Val. You do that. I'll even babysit," I told her.

I didn't really mean it, but I shouldn't have been surprised when she called me a few days later to request a babysitter.

"Steph! I'm moving on. I have a date on Friday night. Can you babysit?" she asked me.

"Sure. Who is the date with?"

"Bernie Kuntz. Do you know Bernie?"

"Yeah, I remember Bernie," I said. Bernie was nice, but harmless. Not really Val's type. I sensed our mother's hand at work here. Better Val than me.