‘That’s right,’ Athena says. ‘I wanted to go out there with her but she wouldn’t hear of it.’

‘How’s she holding up?’ I whisper.

She grimaces. ‘So-so. She’s relieved it’s over, but she’s exhausted and emotionally drained. She finds it very upsetting when Tabby’s in surgery, obviously, and there aren’t any parents’ beds in the ICU so she spent last night in an armchair. So yeah. I think it’s pretty shitty for her, even if she’s been putting on a brave face for me.’

Of course she has, because that’s what she does. She turns up for work every morning looking perfectly professional and breathtakingly beautiful, and she focuses on me and my childish, irrelevant fucking needs like I’m the centre of her universe and she doesn’t have a terrifyingly sick kid waiting at home for an operation that needs to happen yesterday. She’s a grafter, and a trooper, and I wonder when the last time was that she put herself first.

I bet she wouldn’t be able to tell me if I asked her.

My heart has been breaking for this little girl I don’t know, but now it’s breaking for her amazing mother, the woman who got under my skin. The woman I treated like dog shit when I got the fear that I was catching feelings.

There are a lot of things I’m not good at, but I am good at throwing my weight around and throwing my toys and throwing money at situations where palms need to be greased—I’m good at throwing things, basically.

I may not be fit for Marlowe to wipe the floor with, but I can definitely make myself useful. I can go over there and be the person to advocate for her. I bet she’s fierce when she’s advocating for her daughter, but I bet she’s meek when they tell her they can’t do better than an armchair. We’ll soon see about that.

And if she needs a break, then maybe, just maybe, she’ll trust me enough to sit with Tabby so her mum can take five for herself. I imagine her pale and drawn, with those same dark circles under her eyes that she had the day we napped together.

Well, that’s decided then.

‘I’m going to go over,’ I tell them. ‘She needs someone in her corner. It’s fucking ridiculous that she should have to face this alone. I mean, what was she thinking?’

Athena gives me a small smile that I think means approval. ‘I’ll come with you. Then I can spend some time with my goddaughter so you can get Marls out of the hospital for some air.’