It took a further ten minutes for the paperwork to be completed and for me to be officially discharged. The nurse we’d seen when we came in advised us to go up to the main entrance where we’d find a taxi. I didn’t have any money with me and promised to pay Jensen back, but he waved my protests away. He offered me his hand as we stood up to leave the safety of my cubicle and I took it gratefully.

I wasn’t just weak from my fall; I was in shock from finding out I was going to be a mother. Or perhaps I was already a mother, simply by being pregnant? I’d never thought about it before. And I don’t know if it was psychosomatic, but I felt oddly aware of my tummy suddenly, with an urge to shield it from the other patients as we walked along the corridor.

‘You’ve been so kind.’ I squeezed Jensen’s hand lightly.

‘Not at all.’ He pressed a feather-light kiss to my cheek. ‘I’m sorry this hasn’t been a happier occasion for you.’

His tenderness nearly undid me. If only someone like him had been the father of this baby and not Harvey. But Jensen wasn’t the father; I was on my own. Until today I hadn’t given much thought to how my first pregnancy would pan out, but I was pretty sure that being single with a violent ex, a temporary job (one which involved a lot of alcohol) and a temporary home wouldn’t have figured in my master plan. And what was worse, what tugged at my heart the most, was that poor Evie and Darren, who would have made wonderful parents, weren’t able to do what I’d done accidentally. Why was life so unfair?

My eyes pricked with tears. ‘Life has a funny way of throwing curve balls in our faces, doesn’t it?’

‘Oh yes,’ he said with meaning. A shadow crossed his face, which made me wonder.

‘Do you want children?’ I blurted out.

He blinked. ‘Um. Yes, eventually. I … well, I’ve never said this out loud before, but I planned on focusing on my career until I was thirty-four and then marrying and starting a family from thirty-five.’

‘That’s very organized. How old are you?’

‘Thirty-six.’ He smiled ruefully and shrugged. ‘Best-laid plans and all that.’

Out in the main reception area, the drunken man we’d seen earlier was still flanked by two police officers. But the fight had gone out of him and he looked like he was asleep. Actually, now the blood had been cleaned from his face and he was no longer flailing about, he looked very familiar.

As we drew level with him, I slowed down.

‘Darren?’ I gasped.

My brother-in-law opened his eyes and rubbed them. ‘Nope. It’s not me. Don’t tell your sister, because it’s not me.’

‘It’s not the normal you, admittedly.’ I don’t think I’d ever known him drink enough to get drunk. This was a first. I caught the eye of one of the officers. ‘I am family, I promise. What’s he done?’