They drove to the common beneath a sky of marching clouds. Exercise was his go-to so he kept Maria in her buggy for the first mile by shouting, ‘Let’s go-go-go!’ and running up and down over frosty ruts and potholes to make her chortle with glee. Then they reached the climbing things and Maria yelled to get out to clamber on wooden animals and follow Josie up a cargo net. As nobody was around, Nico did twenty chin-ups on a horizontal bar, Josie counting aloud for him and Maria shouting, ‘Hooray!’

Then they tramped on, Josie chattering about ice forming at the edges of puddles, Maria drowsing in the buggy. Part of Nico’s mind was still occupied with what would happen on Monday. He tried to think positively. Maybe Vivvi and Loren could cope. If Maria went to join Loren at Vivvi and Red’s, Loren would feel supported by other adults; Vivvi would only have to supervise.

He returned home to roast chicken breasts and root vegetables for dinner, his head clearer.

The girls watched TV, squashed together on the sofa as if it was National Cuddle Day. Nico could supervise them from the kitchen so he made time to call his mum Carina for the first time in weeks.

‘Hej, Mamma, det är jag,’ he said. Hi Mum, it’s me. ‘Any snow in Älgäng?’

‘A flurry or two. Nothing that stayed,’ she answered. ‘How’s life in England? Are you still coming for Lucia?’

One-handed, he got a bowl of frozen peas ready to put in the microwave. It was the only green vegetable Josie would eat without fuss, though she would happily have eaten iceberg lettuce with every meal, dipping it in gravy as readily as in mayonnaise. ‘Can’t wait to be home.’ They were used to him flitting in and out of Sweden without seeing his family. Stockholm was a four-hour drive from Älgäng.

They talked about work and then Carina said, with an edge to her voice, ‘I saw Emelie’s mother Ida in Nässjö, in Kvantum.’

Shit, thought Nico. Ida was married to his uncle on his father’s side, and they ended up in the same supermarket in Nässjö at the same time, even though one lived in Älgäng and the other in Eksjö. ‘Oh?’ he said. He propped his backside on a stool, suddenly fatigued. ‘I suppose she told you I’m giving a hand with Maria?’ He hadn’t bothered his parents with this news.

‘My son certainly hadn’t told me! I rang your father but he knew no more than I did.’

Nico’s brows shot up. Carina must have really wanted to know about the situation to seek information from the man she’d divorced twenty-two years ago.

‘She’s two and being neglected,’ he pointed out. ‘You wouldn’t have left her there either.’