Nico saw Maria regularly. She was a sunny, likeable child with blonde hair that curled at the ends. Josie loved her with a passion and Nico had begun by refusing to blame her for Loren’s betrayal and, over time, had come to realise he genuinely didn’t harbour rancour towards her.

Now, anger and alarm boiling up at the distress of an innocent toddler, Nico assumed a reassuring don’t-worry-daddy-always-knows-what-to-do facade. ‘We’ll give Maria a quick bath and find her clean pyjamas, shall we? How about you show me where the bathroom is?’ Loren’s room he already knew to be en suite and he could hear her shower running. Then he thought of how a child might feel after being shut away to cry and reprioritised. ‘Actually, you get the bath running while I pop into the kitchen.’

Leaving the two girls heading hand in hand for the bathroom he raced into the kitchen and located a plastic beaker, orange juice and two biscuits. He’d have preferred to make Maria a sandwich but couldn’t find bread or much to put in it. When Maria saw the beaker she ran to him. ‘Juice, p’ease!’ Snatching the beaker, she gulped down the whole lot, breathing heavily through her nose.

Nico’s anger and concern grew but he kept his voice gentle. ‘More?’ Maria nodded emphatically as she grabbed a biscuit and took a big bite. Nico fetched another drink, leaving Josie to keep an eye on the filling bath.

Then he checked the bathwater temperature while the girls threw off their clothes, Josie’s heaped costume looking like the witch who melted in The Wizard of Oz. Maria, having eaten both biscuits and drunk most of the second lot of juice, scrambled over the bath side looking more cheerful, Nico automatically hovering his hands to catch her if she slipped. For several minutes he sat on the floor while they played, chatting to them, smiling as Maria yodelled, ‘Yozee, Yozee, watch!’ then clapped handfuls of suds to spatter the room. Her little girl laughter burst into the air. Then she beamed at him. ‘Mydad, watch!’ She repeated the trick.

‘Yay,’ he said softly, knowing all she needed was a smiling face and a response.

After several minutes, Loren appeared silently at the bathroom door. Asking Josie to wash off her green face paint and help Maria wash too, he backed up until he and Loren were standing in the hallway, able to see the sisters laughing together but out of earshot. ‘Better?’ he asked her quietly.

She nodded. Wet hair was combed back from her forehead, her skin pasty, so unlike the smart, sexy woman he’d married that it wrenched at his heart.

‘You’d forgotten Josie was coming,’ he murmured, feeling a statement was less likely to meet with a flat denial than a question.

Loren nodded again.