‘Actually, I’ve got some news too,’ she blurted out in a rush. The urgency in her voice made me forget all about my own worries. Please say she was pregnant.

‘Go on, tell me then.’

‘I’m going to apply for us to become foster parents,’ she said, exhaling as she spoke.

I pushed aside my disappointment; it was still brilliant that they were taking positive action as a couple.

‘That’s amazing, I’m thrilled for you both!’ I cried, my face breaking into a huge smile. ‘See, I told you Darren would come round in the end. He just needed time!’

This had been the bone of contention between them for months. Darren had wanted a child but, according to Evie, he wasn’t interested in going down any route other than the biological one. Evie wanted a child any which way she could.

‘I haven’t told him yet.’ I heard my sister swallow hard and my heart plummeted. ‘I thought I’d go ahead and fill in an initial form online. And then I’ll tell him. Ideally I’d like to adopt, but he’s not sure how he feels about that. At least with fostering we can practise looking after children without a long-term commitment and if it goes well … who knows?’

‘Does this mean that things between the two of you have improved?’ I asked hopefully.

I heard her groan softly. ‘Not so as you’d notice. That’s why we need to do something positive, something that moves us forward.’

‘And you definitely can’t consider other options: sperm donors, egg donors, IVF?’

There was a silence down the line.

‘I would but Darren … Well, let’s just say it’s not an option. Which is why I’m ruling out being a biological mother. No,’ I heard her suck in a breath, ‘fostering ticks a lot of boxes.’

I bit my lip, worried that this approach was more likely to push Darren further away. ‘I don’t think you should get too far into it before you talk to him about it.’

‘But I want to go ahead,’ she said with a wobbly voice. ‘I want to be a mum more than anything.’

‘More than being Darren’s wife?’ I asked softly.

I thought about Mum and Dad and the loving role models they’d been for us. If anyone had been shown how to get it right, it was Evie and me. And yet look at us: I was having doubts about the man I’d fallen so madly in love with and she was going behind the back of a man who up until now had done everything in his power to make her happy.

‘How did it come to this?’ I murmured half to myself.