Loren pulled herself upright and fixed him with huge, beseeching eyes. ‘OK. I’ve come to ask for us to be one family. You, me, Josie and Maria. It’s the obvious thing to do. Maria loves you! I’ll get clean, with your support.’ Her words shot out in emphatic bursts. ‘You’re so stable, Nico. You cope with everything. Like, like—’ Her eyes flickered around the room as if the words she needed to convince him might be hiding in the cupboards. ‘Like, it’s too much for me to be a single mum but look how strong you are as a single dad.’

Astonishment stole Nico’s voice. Dimly, he could hear yells upstairs; Vivvi was trying to persuade Maria to do something and the chirruping little voice was rising obstinately. ‘Want Mydad! Want Myyyydaaad!’

‘Let’s make a family home,’ Loren pleaded. ‘We can go back to Islington and—’

‘Josie’s got a place at school here,’ he said automatically.

‘She can go back to her old school.’

‘She’s off the roll there and she hated it,’ he snapped, furious at the way Loren was dismissing Josie’s feelings.

Loren looked around herself, bewildered. ‘You can’t live here. It’s the back of beyond. There are no shops. Nothing to do.’

‘We love it here. OK, there’s only one shop but there’s a town and a city nearby.’

She rose, getting in his space, stubbornly trying to stop his plans standing in the way of hers. ‘There’s nothing for Maria.’

Not enjoying being loomed over, he rose too. ‘There’s bound to be preschool. I haven’t enquired because I believed Maria would be going to you or your mum before I went to Sweden.’ His heart gave a great pang. Remembering the great time they’d had in Sweden, Maria laughing at the snow, wrinkling her nose, riding on his shoulders. He halted, newly aware of the trauma lying in wait for the girls if they were split up again. Right in front of him was an opportunity to make a proper family for both girls.

Loren gazed at him with her eyes full of fear and longing. Pity rose up as if to choke him.

The sound of arguing voices came rapidly nearer and Maria burst in, eyes like saucers. She flew across the room as if she were being hunted. ‘Mydad, Mydad,’ she sobbed.

‘See,’ whispered Loren, as if this proved everything she’d been saying.

His heart was breaking. A trap was closing. A police siren sounded in the distance, speeding off to deal with somebody’s crisis. He wished you could do something as simple as calling the police when you were being put in an emotional stranglehold.

Automatically, he hugged Maria, patting her shuddering back.

Josie skipped into the room, Vivvi close behind. ‘Maria didn’t want to stay upstairs with me and Grandma, Dad. She wanted you.’