‘Yes, you can. You’ve lived with worse. Becks, this is what I do every day with my businesses. I weigh up the opportunity, the cost, the risks, the benefits. You have to step back and try to see the big picture. It’s not about one decision, it’s about your life. Your future. Our daughter’s future. All those things matter as well.’

‘What should I do?’

‘Be a good person? Try your best to be kind and generous? Give people a chance? That’s how you make the world a better place. Not by throwing yourself onto the fire because you feel like you owe something to a woman you’ve never even met. Who you’ve done nothing to.’

‘She tried to kill herself.’

‘You didn’t do that to her. You didn’t do anything. And, more to the point, even having seen it, you don’t know what you saw.’

Becky nods. She wonders if she can do it. Just absorb it. File it away. Forget about it. Let the red carpet roll out. Smile, and thank Matthew from the podium if she wins.

‘You didn’t seem that surprised when I told you,’ says Becky.

‘What, about Matthew?’

‘Yes.’

‘I suppose I’m not that surprised. I think shit like that happens every day.’

‘And I’m supposed to let Maisie loose into all that …?’

‘Yes. You have to. We have to. It’s what good parents do.’ He smiles at her. ‘Hey, I’ll be right there with you stalking her boyfriends and threatening them with a baseball bat if they don’t make her feel amazing every single day.’

‘I am so going to be that person,’ she smiles. He always makes her feel better with his reasonable thinking and jokes. If only she’d said something sooner.

‘I know you’re going to be that person. And so does Maisie. It’s fine. We’ll still love you when you are. I do think you should think about changing jobs though. Maybe once Medea is filming? You don’t want to be working next to someone you’re afraid of.’

‘I’m not afraid of Matthew. I think he made a terrible mistake. I’m not sure … I don’t know what it was, but I don’t think he’s a bad person.’

‘There you are then.’

‘There I am.’

‘Ready for some breakfast alcohol?’

‘Can I have a pancake instead?’

‘Always.’

She kisses him. Somewhere in the city, Amber is lying hooked up to multiple machines, everyone trying to keep her alive against her wishes, and here is Becky, realizing that, if she is honest, she has fallen in love with Adam, or has finally admitted that she has always loved him. How can this be fair? But how can it be otherwise?