And yet, Polina is right, because she knows Layla better than anyone. She has spent more time with Layla in her short time on earth than anyone else. It was Gabriela’s lap she chose for cuddles when all was well, but it was Polina to whom she instinctively turned when the tears rose in her eyes.

‘I’ll go and get packed then,’ she says, moving towards the hall, regretting not having gathered all that she needed before Polina returned.

And then she hears the door click open and a voice calling her daughter’s name, and when she turns she sees him standing in the doorway, blocking their escape.

Chapter 76

Gabriela

It takes a moment for Gabriela to compose herself, and when she does, she sees that Ivan is looking at her in a way that makes her rearrange herself on the spot.

‘But what are you doing here?’ she asks, recovering herself just enough for the sentence to form.

‘I was about to ask you the same thing …’ He lingers for a moment as if awaiting a reply, and then he says, ‘My flight was cancelled. I’m leaving tomorrow instead.’

‘OK,’ she says, after a moment. ‘My course was postponed. I didn’t see any reason to tell you, as you were supposed to be away.’

‘I see. Well, that’s worked out well then, hasn’t it?’

‘Hasn’t it?’ she says, as he leans in to kiss her, the bristle of his beard scratching her cheek.

‘I’ll cook for all of us. Polina, too,’ she says as evening folds in, having spent the afternoon resisting the urge to stare at him, to scour his face for evidence of what he does and does not know.

She moves into the kitchen and puts on the apron hanging on the back of the door – the one she had made, with a print of Layla and Ivan with Ivan’s mother from their trip to Moscow, the three of them on the sofa in her apartment.

‘Polina,’ Gabriela calls out. ‘You’ll eat with us, won’t you? I need a drink,’ she says, turning to Ivan. ‘Do we have gin?’

‘We seem to have run out,’ he says. ‘What about something else? We have wine or—’

‘I really fancy gin. Do you think you could run out and grab some, while I prepare this?’

He pauses. ‘OK. If you’re sure you can’t have something else.’

‘I’m sorry,’ she says. ‘You don’t mind, do you?’

Polina walks into the hall and out of nowhere she has a flicker of memory of Madeleine talking. Information from insider informants.

Pushing the voice away, she looks back at Ivan and he shrugs, then pulls on his coat. ‘Anything else?’

‘I don’t think so,’ she says.