Dennis gave her a look. ‘And you’ve got Lennie.’

‘He’s got Natalie. Though that’s not necessarily a win, is it?’

He shook his head. ‘No. Stop it. I’m asking you to be kinder to him. If not for his sake, then for mine.’ He turned back to the TV for a moment then picked up the remote again and turned it all the way off. ‘Also, I’ve been thinking. I’ve got a little pension that’ll mature next month, on my birthday, and—’

‘No.’

He held up a hand. ‘I know you’re working all hours with Maggie to get some money together but why don’t you let me help you out, just this once? It would only be speeding things up, just get it all moving a bit quicker. You could get your own place, start working on—’

‘I can’t,’ she said. ‘I can’t take your money.’

‘So don’t take it – think of it as a loan, pay me back when you can.’

‘Dad. I appreciate it, really, but I can’t. I need to sort this out myself.’

He sighed. ‘Well, if you change your mind, you know where I am.’ He stood up and turned to plump the cushion, setting it back in the chair the right way up, zip side hidden, straight. ‘One other thing,’ he said. ‘I know you think your mother’s some sort of indomitable force but she’s not, you know. She’s a human being, too. Fallible and vulnerable, just like the rest of us. Will you try and remember that? Give her a chance. For me?’

As she cleaned her teeth, Robin stared at her reflection in the mirror and was punched by a fist of memory so sudden and hard she choked.

They’d been standing just here, side by side, she and Corinna, getting ready for the party at Monica’s house to celebrate the end of A-levels. It was June and hot, they’d been out in the park all day getting strap marks and slightly drunk on white wine they’d decanted into a thermos, demob happy, giddy about the future that had just yawned open in front of them, limitless in its school-free liberty.

Rin had elbowed her out of the way to do her cat’s eyes and, laughing, she’d elbowed her back, bodging her arm so that Rin had drawn a big whisker of kohl into her hairline. They’d fallen about, laughing like lunatics until Luke, sour-faced, came to make sure they weren’t laughing at him. After he’d gone, Rin had caught her eye in the mirror. She’d tipped her head sideways until it had bumped against Robin’s. ‘Love you, you know.’

She’d just rolled her eyes.

Now she looked at the space beside her and saw the reflection of the pale pink wall and the thermo-nuclear heated towel rail behind her. Corinna was gone.