‘I think you might be right,’ Nate whispered in her ear as he thought, And I think your dad might have it too, recalling his conversation with Ted last week when he admitted how difficult he had found school, getting assignments in on time and trying to focus. Everyone assumed it was grief, he had said sadly, but my brain had always operated like that.

‘And like me,’ Jules said loudly (and proudly), a hand on Charlotte’s shoulder. ‘We’re going to rule the world one day, aren’t we?’

She mightn’t be wrong, thought Alice. She was now a creative consultant for Aki Mantel’s chain of hotels. Since having their first child, the Mantels had decided to focus their philanthropy on education. Alice and Nate were in discussion with them about funding a different sort of school, transposing a successful Silicon Valley model that better suited autistic children over to the UK. ‘It’s really, really exciting,’ Alice had gushed when she told Jules, who promptly called Elliott Mantel and begged to be on the school board. It was a win-win for them all since Jules’s profile was soaring since her podcast appearance. Shortly after listening to the podcast herself, Alice had sent the link to Ted, not knowing that all over the City, phones were lighting up with a similar message: Listen to this now.

Last week she’d googled ‘Julia Frey-Jackson gambling’ and a list of hits came up. Alice had watched a video, smiling, Jules in vibrant mismatched clothing, looking like she had when they were younger, speaking to other women about neuro-diversity. She’ll be doing a TED talk next, thought Alice, not knowing an email invitation was already sitting in Jules’s inbox.

‘You bet,’ Charlotte beamed up at her Aunty Jules. Since Charlotte’s stress levels had reduced, a fierce intellect had emerged. She could hold a short conversation in Korean now, certainly enough to get by if she travelled to Korea, as she planned to. She frequently implored her parents and Nate to take her but so far only Ted had responded with a tentative ‘maybe’. ‘Let’s not be too hasty though,’ he’d said quickly, when she immediately pulled up a flight comparison website.

‘One of the benefits of home-schooling,’ Nate had said amiably. ‘Flexibility.’ And Ted had grimaced. Nate had become a listening ear to Ted the last few months. In fact, Alice might go so far as to say that they seemed like friends. She smiled at Nate now as he chatted to Phoebe, answering her questions about whether there were dolphins in the ocean and what their names might be.

*

After the ceremony beneath the pergola, lushly adorned with a fragrant ceiling of white and blue wisteria, and after they’d all stopped crying, they returned to the terrazza dell’infinito, perched on the edge of the cliff. The water was calm, iridescent with sunlight in the gaps between small boats in the distance. Waiters circulated with trays of electric orange and rosemary Aperol spritzes and freshly squeezed peach bellinis, while others shaved slices of Parmesan and prosciutto on to delicate white plates in the shade. A small band played music.