Waiting until the music plays, she pulls her phone from her bag and stares at the screen for a moment before searching for Saoirse’s number and pressing call.

She answers after three rings and the sound of her voice strikes Gabriela in the solar plexus. ‘Gabriela?’

‘Hi,’ she says, the emotions rising up in her chest. ‘I’m sorry, did I wake you?’

‘No.’ There is a pause. ‘Are you OK?’

‘I’m so sorry to do this, but something has happened and I need your help.’

‘OK,’ Saoirse replies immediately.

‘Can I come and stay for a night? Tom and the kids will come separately.’

Gabriela keeps her voice low so that the driver does not hear, should any questions be raised further down the line. Because she is not foolish enough to think that Ivan won’t come looking, even if he is behind bars.

‘No problem,’ Saoirse says, without warmth. She knows, in a way that she can no longer deny, that her absence over the years has cut deep. But nothing she can do will ever stop Saoirse being there for her when she needs her. To her, the sort of friendship they have is a life-long contract, unbreakable no matter what.

‘You know I wouldn’t ask, if it wasn’t …’

‘I know,’ she says. ‘What time will you be here?’

‘I don’t know, I’ve just left London.’

‘Fine,’ she says. ‘I’ll text you the address. I’ll wait up.’

‘Thank you, Saoirse.’

But by the time Gabriela has finished saying her name, she has already hung up.

She calls twice before Tom answers, his voice thick with sleep.

‘Tom, listen to me – what I’m about to say makes no sense but I need you to do exactly what I tell you to, OK? I need you to get up immediately and go and get the kids. Pack a bag, just a few bits; I have our passports …’

Instinctively, she places her hand over her bag, in which she has placed Layla’s passport alongside those of her family.

‘Our passports? What the hell, Gabriela—’

‘Tom,’ she interrupts him, flicking a look at the driver who is too busy humming along to the radio to be distracted by the tone in her voice. ‘Just do as I say, OK? I wouldn’t be saying it unless it was very important. You need to grab a change of clothes for the kids and come straight to Saoirse and Jim’s. I’m on my way there now.’

She can tell he wants to ask something else but he restrains himself, saying instead, ‘Right. Can you at least tell me why?’

‘I’m sorry,’ she says. ‘I’ll tell you more when you get here.’

Chapter 79

Gabriela