The Cactus

Susan Green is a meticulous, forty-five-year-old civil servant in London who prides herself on maintaining complete control over every aspect of her life. When her brother, Edward, calls early one morning to say their mother, Patricia Green, has died of a massive stroke in Birmingham, Susan is already hovering over the toilet with unexplained nausea. She receives the news with outward composure, goes to work without telling anyone, and spends the day maintaining a front of normalcy.

On the train to Birmingham for the funeral, Susan opens letters from Howard Brinkworth, the solicitor Patricia named as executor. One delivers a shock: Under the will, Edward has been given a "life interest" in the family home, meaning he can live there as long as he wishes. The house will only be sold and proceeds divided when Edward moves out or dies. Susan is furious, convinced that Edward, whom she considers weak-willed and self-indulgent, manipulated their elderly mother into writing such a lopsided will.

At the family home, Susan finds beer cans, newspapers, and evidence of cannabis use, left by Edward and his friend Rob Rhys, a landscape gardener recently returned from India. The funeral becomes a disaster: Susan collapses at the lectern while reading a poem, and at the wake Edward gets progressively drunker, insults relatives, and shoves Susan when she confronts him. Susan storms back to the house, packs her bags, and takes her mother's jewelry box and other valuables for safekeeping.

Back in London, Susan reveals the other crisis she has been concealing. For over twelve years, she has maintained a "commitment-free" arrangement with Richard, a freelance arts critic: weekly outings followed by nights at his hotel, with no emotional entanglement. When she discovered she was pregnant due to a contraceptive failure, she broke off the arrangement by text. Richard later appears at her flat; when Susan reveals the pregnancy, his horrified reaction confirms her belief that he does not truly want fatherhood. She surprises herself by deciding to keep the baby.

Susan blocks the grant of probate, the legal process needed to distribute the estate, and begins building a case to overturn the will. At a meeting with Brinkworth, both siblings refuse a proposed compromise. During the encounter, Susan feels the baby move for the first time and impulsively tells Edward she is pregnant. He laughs and does not believe her.

Susan's investigation proceeds alongside her pregnancy. She discovers that the two witnesses to the will were Aunt Sylvia, Patricia's younger sister, and Rob. At a London spa, Aunt Sylvia recalls that Edward phoned her the day before the signing, insisting she visit Patricia. When Sylvia arrived, Rob also appeared. Edward produced the will in a brown envelope and left while the others completed the paperwork. Susan consults her university friend Brigid, a barrister, who advises focusing on proving Patricia lacked mental capacity rather than proving coercion.

Meanwhile, Susan's upstairs neighbor Kate, a recently separated mother of two small children, becomes an unlikely friend and practical ally. Richard reappears, insisting on involvement in the baby's life and proposing marriage. Influenced partly by Rob's painful story of losing contact with his own son after abandoning his college girlfriend, Susan agrees to let Richard participate as a co-parent on defined terms but declines the proposal.

Susan spends an emotional weekend in Birmingham clearing her mother's belongings. Rob helps store the furniture, and during their time together, Susan begins to see him differently. After overhearing Rob defend her to Edward on Christmas Day, she realizes she has misjudged him.

The pivotal evidence arrives when Susan receives her mother's medical records. With Kate's help, she discovers that after her second stroke, Patricia was diagnosed with vascular dementia, a condition causing confusion, memory loss, and difficulty with planning. The records show Edward was designated Patricia's primary carer and knew about the diagnosis but never told Susan. At around 31 weeks, Susan experiences bleeding and is rushed to the hospital, where monitoring confirms the baby is healthy.

While gathering witness statements in Birmingham, Susan visits the vicar of St. Stephen's Church, who reveals a secret Patricia shared before her death: Susan was adopted as a newborn. Her birth certificate, hidden in the jewelry box, names her mother as Sylvia Grainger, Aunt Sylvia's maiden name. Susan confronts Aunt Sylvia, who tearfully confirms the story. At seventeen, Sylvia became pregnant, and Patricia, who had experienced three miscarriages, proposed adopting the baby. Sylvia then reveals a further secret: Susan's biological father was Clive Green, Patricia's own husband. A brief encounter after a family wedding produced Susan, a fact Clive never disclosed to Patricia.

Confident in her medical evidence, Susan sends it to Edward's solicitors. The responses devastate her. Patricia's consultant will testify that despite the dementia, Patricia understood her estate and the act of making a will. The vicar has also contacted Edward with the adoption information, providing a motive for Patricia to favor her biological son and undermining Susan's central argument.

Shattered, Susan sinks into despair, barely leaving her flat for a week. She eventually reaches a painful realization: Her mother likely did intend to benefit Edward, not from confusion but from genuine concern for her more vulnerable child. She drops the case and sends her mother's ashes to Edward by courier.

At a mediation meeting, Susan tells Edward she will not pursue the case. Edward, stunned, reveals he never wanted the house: He hates it and has already contacted estate agents. He only resisted out of spite, because Susan's attacks made him dig in his heels. Both siblings effectively concede, and the house will be sold with proceeds divided equally. Edward tells Susan their mother loved her but never worried about her because Susan always seemed destined to be fine.

As they exit the building, Susan's water breaks. Edward drives her to the hospital, where Kate arrives as birth partner and Rob drives down from Birmingham. Labor is long and difficult, and when the baby shows signs of distress, an emergency cesarean is performed. After a terrifying silence, the baby lets out her first cries and is placed on Susan's chest, healthy and pink.

Susan names her daughter Nell. Rob had recently visited his former girlfriend in Edinburgh, only to realize his feelings for her were a fantasy; afterward, he proposed that he and Susan move in together. Susan refused at the time, but in the hospital ward she tells him she has changed her mind, specifying they should buy rather than rent. Kate offers to free her flat for them by moving in with another single mother. Susan reflects on Aunt Sylvia with new empathy, imagining what it cost a seventeen-year-old to hand over her baby. She places Bunnikins, the knitted rabbit Sylvia made before Susan was born, in Nell's crib. As visiting hours end, Susan asks Rob to stay beside her. He does, and the curtains close around them.