Becky hates that there are secrets. Whose fault is this? Is it hers? Did she somehow prey on Adam? Did she use him? She blinks at the memory of those early days of feeling so exhausted and so sad that she could barely make it out of bed, let alone make any kind of decision. Adam had put the idea to her. An easy path. A lie told out of love. His gift and his choice. Surely his parents would love him more for such a kind and selfless act? But might they love Becky less, this girl who’d taken most of a life from their too-kind son? Who’d robbed them of children with Grandma T’s eyes, with Grandpa T’s youthful head of curls, and all the history that they carried in their blood, the connections made from life to life in a chain of descent that Maisie should have carried beyond them, bearing a spark of them past their deaths and into tomorrow. All gone. Perhaps they might still love Maisie, the habit of love too ingrained to be erased, but what of her liar-mother?

But they are here, aren’t they? And they look like a family now, and how easily the final change is happening. Becky can see the going to sleep and waking up together, under the same roof, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year. Her arms around Maisie, Adam’s arms around Becky.

She deletes Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and the password-protected folder called ‘Household’ which is really filled with words and images that she has collected from Scott’s life.

It’s time to start again.

The table is laid for cake and fizz, around an Aladdin’s cave pile of presents wrapped in silver and gold metallic paper. Streamers and balloons have been draped across every photo and picture frame and a thin plastic banner sags over the door.

BIRTHDAY GIRL

Becky steps into the kitchen, cardigan wrapped tight round her body and over her fists, despite the warmth of the summer day. Adam and Maisie are already seated at the table, waiting for proceedings to begin. And soon, Grandma T, blue-eyed and bird-like, and Grandpa T, GT for short, named by Maisie after his favourite drink, join them from the hall after hanging coats and sorting shoes.