‘Tell me,’ Maria urged soothingly. ‘You know that’s what I’m here for. To take any worries away from you.’

Stella nodded. ‘He’s done it again,’ she said quietly, and Maria feared she knew what was coming.

‘Who’s done what?’ she asked.

‘Her dad – he’s hurt her.’ Stella sobbed as she crashed against her mum’s chest and Maria wrapped her arms around her daughter, nestling her head against Stella’s.

‘You’ve done the right thing,’ she said.

‘You have to promise you won’t say anything,’ Stella pleaded and Maria said she promised because oh, how much easier it would be to keep quiet than to face Bob. But a child’s safety was involved. And despite everything, that was paramount.

When Maria looked back at that afternoon many years later, she could still vividly recall Bob’s face when he opened the door to her as he wiped his grubby hands on a tea towel, tucking it into the waistband of his trousers. How his face had dropped when she’d started speaking. She’d told him she was worried about Jill, that she was only looking out for her, and had expected him to shout, at least say something, but the quieter he remained the more she dug herself into a hole.

Eventually Maria stopped talking. The look on his face was pure fury. Fire burnt from his eyes, his hands clenched into tight fists by his sides. She had overstepped the mark. She stood there, frozen with fear, preparing herself for whatever punch he would, quite literally, throw at her.

Instead he leant forward, his face contorted in anger. ‘Don’t you dare think I owe you anything after this,’ he said, his voice measured and unnaturally calm. All the years of mutual trust and silence had fizzled away in one short moment. ‘I don’t ever want your daughter near mine again. Now get the hell off my property.’

She had run and not looked back. The next time she had seen Bob they hadn’t discussed the encounter, because by then there were other, more pressing matters.

But when Stella would beg her to go back to the island, pleading with her that now David and Bonnie had left the family home, and it could be just the three of them, the idea would run down Maria’s spine like a shard of ice.

Four days after that encounter at his door, she would be tethered to Bob again in ways she could never have imagined.

And because of that, her family would never be able to return to Evergreen ever again.

PRESENT

Chapter Twenty-Eight

It is four p.m. and I’m running along the harbour to the last of the bright yellow boats. On weekends there are two ferries a day, and the final one is about to leave.