‘Is there a way back for you two? You still love him.’

‘Yeah, of course but—’

‘If you love him, that’s enough. Put yourselves back together.’

‘For their sakes,’ she says.

‘No, for yours.’

She takes down two photos – the football one and one of Mabli on a small horse. She hands them to me. ‘Thanks.’

I look back towards the fridge. Ashton on his bike. Mabli and her (now dead) ginger cat. A shopping list, a school flyer for a Christmas fair, and a picture of a child I don’t recognise; it’s not Ashton or Mabli. A different little girl, a toddler, sitting in a small wooden chair before a Christmas tree and a mountain of presents, wearing a tartan dress. Big hazel eyes, hair like soft caramel, a one-toothed smile beaming enough to light up the room.

‘Who’s that?’ I ask, as the picture pulls me towards it.

‘Oh God,’ says Seren. ‘Yeah, uh… that’s Ivy.’

‘My Ivy?’ I take the picture down off the fridge and stare at it. The last time I saw her, she was a blob in an incubator, eyes like tiny black lines in her face. Now they’re wide open, the colour of tiger’s eyes. Like AJ’s eyes. She’s the most beautiful child I’ve ever seen. But she would be – she’s mine.

‘I totally forgot that was there, I’m so sorry.’

‘Why have you got this?’

Seren clears her throat. ‘Claudia sent it to me. We’ve kept in touch.’

‘Why?’

‘She friended me on Facebook a few months ago. Started sending me progress reports on Ivy. That picture came with her Christmas card.’

‘She’s got a tooth,’ I smiled.

‘Claudia wants me to be in Ivy’s life, if only from a distance. She looks so much like you. Well, like you used to look at that age.’

‘Does she?’

‘Yeah. Mirror image. Can’t you see it?’ I shake my head. ‘What do you feel when you look at her?’

‘Sick.’ I can’t take my eyes from the picture. ‘Sad.’

‘Is your heart thumping?’ I nod. ‘Do you want to cry?’ I nod again, unable to see the picture through water. ‘Do you want to touch her face, smell her hair, give her a hug? That’s how I feel when I look at my children. They don’t want hugs so much anymore but I’ll never stop loving them, wanting them near me. I even ache when they go to school some days. That’s love.’

I wipe my cheek and hand her back the photo but she hands it back to me. ‘No, you can keep that one too, if you want. You did the right thing, giving her to Claudia. She loves the bones of that baby. Ivy wants for nothing.’

I can’t stop staring at her. ‘Claudia married again. Are they happy?’

‘What time’s your flight?’