Back home, Sarah was sitting alone in their living room, watching Back to the Future.

‘Did Emily and Sophie get to sleep okay?’ Maddy asked, taking her coat off. She hung it over the back of a chair.

‘Out like a light.’ Sarah topped her wine up from a bottle on the table. ‘You having a glass of something?’

‘Thanks, I’ll get myself some lime cordial,’ Maddy said.

‘Max?’

‘I’ll have a beer.’

‘You’ll never guess who has a voice like an angel.’ Maddy put her arm around Chloe.

‘Has she really?’ Sarah sat up.

Chloe nodded. Max smiled as he left the room.

In the kitchen, he took a Guinness out of the fridge. There was a letter for him on the counter. Huntingdon Borough Council was stamped in red on the front. He opened it. Bloody parking fine. He stuffed it into his trouser pocket. Maddy walked in and took a glass out of the cupboard and a box of éclairs out of the fridge.

‘Did you get your post?’

Max didn’t answer. He poured his Guinness into a pint glass.

‘A letter – from Huntingdon Council, wasn’t it? I meant to tell you.’

He sipped the head of his beer and, without thinking, put his hand in his pocket. The crackling sound of the plastic window gave him away.

‘What is it about?’ she asked. ‘Looked like something official.’ She put the glass and cakes down. He was dumb for being late tonight, dumber for thinking he could live like this and get away with it.

‘It’s nothing.’ He drank a mouthful of beer, hoping she’d move on to something else.

She took a plate out of the cupboard and put the cakes on it.

‘Come on, let’s see.’ She was laughing now, her fingers wriggling in the air towards him.

He stepped back but her hand dipped into his pocket and swiped the letter.

She peered into the envelope. ‘A parking fine?’ She frowned.

‘From a job up there, that’s all.’ He snatched it out of her hand.

‘You didn’t tell me.’ She wasn’t smiling any more.

‘Do I have to tell you everything?’ He drank down his beer and stomped up the stairs.

In the bathroom he locked the door and took out the letter. Two weeks ago, in High Street, Huntingdon, at 8.05 p.m. He looked again at the date. He’d taken Ali out for a meal at the George Hotel. Some bugger must have swiped it off his windscreen while they were in the restaurant. How could he be so careless? He stuffed it back in the envelope. Chloe was coming up the stairs as he came out.

‘You were a superstar tonight, Angel.’

‘Thanks, Daddy.’

‘Off to bed then.’ He kissed her forehead. ‘Call me when you’re ready and I’ll come and read you a story.’

‘Not tonight, Daddy, I don’t feel very well.’