Helena died within nine months of Enzo. Just a week before she passed away, Belinda was surprised to receive a short letter from Helena asking her to visit. ‘There are things that need to be said’ was the cryptic sentence at the end of the letter.

Belinda agonised for hours over whether she should go to see Helena. What could it possibly achieve? In the end she’d gone out of the kindness of her heart not knowing what to expect. It had been a strange feeling driving up the lane to the smallholding and parking outside her former home.

The door had simply been pulled to and Belinda pushed it open and walked in, calling out ‘Hello’. Helena had been sitting at the kitchen table waiting for her.

‘Good of you to come,’ she’d said, indicating a chair. ‘I wasn’t sure you would.’

Belinda had sat and waited for Helena to speak.

‘Although he knew he was dying, Enzo was a happy man for the last weeks of his life,’ Helena had told her. ‘Your mother was the love of his life, not me, and he adored you. Seeing you again meant everything to him.’ She’d taken a deep breath then. ‘I’m ashamed to say it was me who kept the two of you apart. I was the one who lied and convinced him you didn’t want to have any contact with him.’

Belinda had nodded. ‘I’d finally worked that out for myself. Sadly your actions made three people desperately unhappy and I’m not sure you were particularly happy either. Life could have been so different. I hope you aren’t asking me to forgive you, because I can’t.’ She’d given Helena a compassionate look before she stood up to leave. ‘But I do feel truly sorry for you.’

There was nothing more she could bring herself to say to Helena, who was clearly an ill woman, and she’d quietly left, closing the door behind her.