‘That’s right.’ He kissed the top of her head. Would his heart get through his daughter’s childhood in one piece?

He remained for another ten minutes, cuddling, chatting, comforting, until he could take Josie down to Tilly and belatedly hurry off to work.

At lunchtime, when he’d returned from getting his hair cut, he received a reply from Rob: Thanks for checking on Hannah. Glad she’s OK. See you at the wedding.

Nico replied: Sure. Then he dived into meeting notes, eating a salad from the cafeteria.

His business week proved exhausting. Meeting chased meeting. A UK ice-hockey team client came to him with doom-and-gloom prophecies over a sponsor going bust. Two members of Nico’s SLS team, Ellie and Jack, were found out in an affair and Ellie’s husband worked for an SLS client. The husband screamed at Ellie and she turned up at work red-eyed. Jack stormed over to the client’s premises in Borough and screamed back at the husband. It absorbed a lot of Nico and HR’s time. After Josie went to bed each evening he caught up on emails, writing tenders or reading contracts and then fell into bed and struggled to switch off his brain.

Throughout it all, he ate conscientiously three times a day. Sometimes it wasn’t as much as planned, but he ate. Emelie had checked out his haircut and given it the seal of approval with: ‘’Bout time,’ and a thumbs up. He was meeting all his goals.

Now, Saturday, he refused to so much as glance at his inbox.

Today was for Josie. He’d take her to Brent Cross in search of a pretty dress for Rob’s wedding and later they’d meet with Stephanie, Martha and their mummies and spend two hours begging at strangers’ doors for tooth-rotting sugary crap – his interpretation, not Josie’s. To her, trick or treating meant excitement and an excuse to gorge on treats not normally encouraged. Afterwards, he’d deliver her to Loren.

On Sunday, while Josie was with her mum and little sister, he’d treat himself to a long, long outdoor run. He’d go to Hampstead Heath and clear his lungs of fumes and over-breathed suburban air. Maybe then he’d get his emails and reports up to date before he picked Josie up ready for school on Monday.

School on Monday. School on Monday. SCHOOL ON MONDAY.

He didn’t know if it loomed in Josie’s mind but it did in his.