‘He’s pulling the plug,’ she said simply, flicking repeatedly at the flint until the flame appeared and she inhaled deeply, as if gasping for life. ‘Fucking bastard,’ her teeth were gritted and her eyes shone with astonished rage.

‘What? Who?’

‘Emsworth,’ she said, spitting his name. ‘Who do you think? Apparently there are funding issues across the whole organisation, cuts need to be made and we are deemed dispensable. He claims he can absorb our roles into his department.’

‘But he can’t— What do you mean?’

‘Oh, don’t be so bloody naive, Gabriela. Of course he can. He already has.’

Gabriela was so dumbstruck that she didn’t go after Madeleine, her feet cemented to the pavement as she moved away, and with her the prospect of any meaningful future disappearing into the distance; the tsunami drawing back, preparing to strike.

As she settled back at her desk a while later, ignoring the concerned looks of her colleagues trying to catch her eye from their desks, the adrenaline only now beginning to pulse through her body, she found an email from Serena.

What’s going on?

Inhaling, she deleted the message.

If she had given it more thought, she might have prevented at least some of what was to follow. But maybe, she would wonder later on, she didn’t want to think too deeply about what was really happening. Maybe she was too busy thinking about herself.

‘Everything OK?’ Tom asked that evening as she stormed into the kitchen, throwing down her bag and filling the closest glass with wine.

‘Mama!’ Sadie ran to her and, without thinking, Gabriela pushed her away. ‘Not now, please, I just need a minute.’

Sadie whirled round and raced out of the room, tears brimming. Gabriela lifted her hands to her face.

‘Mummy just needs to decompress,’ she heard Tom say as he closed the door behind her and Gabriela instantly regretted her briskness. And yet, as Tom walked back into the room, her mind went back to her day at work. How could she tell him? If the department was being torn apart and she was about to be made redundant or shifted across somewhere she didn’t want to be, in order to survive her focus now had to be on making herself indispensable, to cling on with both hands.