After he’d finished explaining about Jez’s offer, she bowed her head and he waited, knowing from past experience that she was praying for guidance and would do nothing until she’d finished.

It was a few minutes before she raised her head. ‘Didn’t you think to come to us for help?’

‘Yes. But I’m too old to live here again, besides which I’ve changed, don’t want the same things in life as you do.’

‘You’ve been skipping church for a while now. Don’t think I haven’t noticed. Brian said to leave you be.’

‘Yes. Well, your church doesn’t feel right for me any longer.’

‘Would you – talk to the pastor about that? Please?’

‘No, definitely not.’

There was the sound of the front door opening and Brian came in, so everything had to be explained all over again. He listened with his usual quiet attention, then turned from the man he considered his son to his wife.

‘Mary, the boy needs to know his biological father. We’ve disagreed about that for a while now.’

Tom looked at them in surprise. He hadn’t had the faintest suspicion of this.

‘We have to trust that we’ve brought him up to be a decent human being,’ Brian said, ‘and wish him well.’

She cried then, something Tom had rarely seen before. He felt racked with guilt, nearly said he’d stay, but bit his tongue. If he said it now, he’d only have to unsay it tomorrow. And would.

He slept better that night on their sofa than he had for a long time in his comfortable bed next to Gail.

In the morning, he lay wondering what his wife was doing. Had she woken up and gone out for more booze, then drunk herself senseless again – or simply stayed in bed? There seemed no pattern in her behaviour from one day to the next.

He didn’t want harm to come to her, but if he never saw her again it’d not upset him. And that was sad, given the high hopes with which they’d married. Was everyone the same at the beginning? Why did some marriages fail so quickly? It had taken only a few months of living with Gail to disillusion him, but by that time she’d been pregnant, and the love he’d felt for her had gradually transferred to Hayley. And then Ryan had come along and he’d loved his little son on sight. How could you not?

He wondered how Jez would get on with such little children. Would he enjoy being a grandfather? He carried their photos in his wallet, Tom’s too, so maybe he’d like having a family.

So many things to wonder about, so many things in a state of change.

For the first time in ages, though, Tom felt hopeful about the future.

The following afternoon Sophie got ready for her interview with Peter Shane, trying on three outfits and not feeling right about any of them, wishing she’d had her hair trimmed, wishing she had the sort of hair you could do fashionable things with, instead of hair so thick and heavy she could only find a good hairdresser to cut it just so, then let it hang loose. Well, at least it wasn’t very grey yet, which was something to be thankful for at her age. Most of her girlfriends dyed their hair now. She wasn’t sure she could be bothered to do that, and anyway the grey roots always showed.