‘I think you should stop working for the time being. You can go back, but you’ve been looking so exhausted and I just think it’s not worth it. I’m sure they will welcome you back with open arms once you’re ready … I intend to give you an allowance each month so you won’t need to worry about money anymore …’

Ivan’s words spun around her head as she made her way home from the pub. There was something about his voice when they had spoken on her way to meet Madeleine that she was still struggling to put her finger on.

The smell of cooking hit Gabriela as she put her key in the door, not long after six. What struck her next was the absence of noise, except for the hissing of oil on the hob over the sound of the radio.

Tom looked up as she walked in, a smile spreading across his face.

‘What’s going on?’ she asked, moving warily into the room, where the table was laid for two with a bunch of daffodils set between the serving spoons.

‘What do you mean?’ he asked, frowning.

‘Why is it so quiet?’

‘Oh, you mean the kids?’ he said. ‘I sold them.’

Moving back to the cooker and flipping the chicken breasts sizzling in the pan so that they spat out oil, he spoke more loudly.

‘Sadie and Callum are watching endless episodes of some brain-rot or other on Netflix on the laptop in our room, so you and I are having a grown-up supper for two. At 6p.m. because that’s how I roll.’

Gabriela accepted a plate and sat down, eyeing him suspiciously. And yet there was no reason why she should be suspicious of this Happy Families routine of his. It was how it went, with Tom: the more significant their arguments, the more likely they were to be followed up by a display of domestic bliss. She wondered how his own self-deceit tasted as he swallowed it.

‘I hope you’re hungry, because I made way too much,’ he said, heaping sautéed potatoes onto her plate.

‘Starving,’ she said.

‘How was your day?’

She held up her hand to show she didn’t want more wine. ‘It was good. I just caught up with some things I needed to do, you know, life admin stuff. Work’s been so full on, we’re starting to pull together links in the chain, and—’

She could already tell Tom was building up to something, though it wasn’t clear yet what it was until he interrupted her.

‘I’ve been thinking … With the new year coming up, I started thinking about resolutions and what I want from life and …’ He paused briefly. ‘I think we should move.’

She stopped chewing, waiting for him to carry on, but he just looked up at her, as if trying to gauge her reaction.