He sat the glass on the crowded bench and swallowed hard. There was no easy way to tell your child you’d sold the only home she ever knew, or you were breaking your promise to spend Christmas with her. There certainly was no easy way to inform her you were running off to America and were hoping you didn’t have to come back.

‘What is it, Dad? You look like you’re about to faint. Are you all right?’

He looked into her pale blue eyes and thought of how he’d so nearly lost her for good. He’d nearly lost her and yet here he was about to leave her. For a moment, he just couldn’t do it. How could he break her heart like this?

He felt his eyes water. She spoke before he found the courage.

‘Dad, I’m a big girl and I’m happy for you. Claire told me last week. I wish you’d told me sooner. I thought you were going to go without saying a proper goodbye. It was a bit of a shock at first, but I think you’re doing the right thing. I want you to be happy wherever you are. I’ll be alright. I’ll miss you so much, but I’ll phone every night, even if it’s just so I can hear you say, ‘guess what, Annie?’ I have heard that so much in my life, I don’t ever want to live without it.’

She moved away from him and held his hand to her chest.

‘It’s all in here, Dad. No matter where you are, you’ll always be in here. I think that makes me a very lucky girl, don’t you?’

He lifted his hands to her face and used his thumbs to stem the tide freely flowing down her cheeks. He pulled her to him.

‘I don’t know how you managed to turn out like this, Annie. I think it was in spite of my efforts rather than because of them. I was always too….’

She put her finger to his lips.

‘Stop it, Dad. Yes, sometimes you had to work and occasionally you missed a school play or something and sometimes I’d see the other kids with their mums and feel a little jealous of them. It hasn’t really been till I came here that I realised how lucky I was, when I hear all the sad stories of ruined childhoods. Every day you made me feel loved - like I was the most special girl in the world. I never thanked you for that, for the love you gave me. Your whole life has been about me, now it’s time for you to live just for you. If that Bernadette one isn’t smart enough to see what she is missing, I’ll go to New York myself and sort her out for you. When do you have to leave?’

‘He has to leave now, Annie.’

Harry was standing in the doorway, still clutching Claire.

He hugged her once more in the street.