It’s not long before Max appears, hurtling around the corner. Without a second thought, Maddy jumps out of her car and runs down the street after him. He’s unstrapping Sam from his seat when she reaches them and, as he lifts Sam under his sleep-suited arms, she tries pulling him to her.

‘Maddy, no, please.’ Max swings Sam away from her and bangs on the door, calling out to Alison.

‘But he’s my baby.’ Maddy’s heart pushes into her throat. She reaches for him again. Max dodges her, moving around the side of the car. Sam’s almost close enough for her to kiss his sweet-smelling skin.

Alison runs out of the house crying, ‘Charlie!’ Jamie follows holding a TV remote ready to zap her but smiles when he sees the baby. Max lays Sam in Alison’s arms and she sobs into his downy hair as she takes him into the house.

A trickle of lava runs through Maddy’s veins. Sam is your baby, take him back, her mother’s voice instructs her. Where are the police? They need to come and save him. She pushes past Max, into the house. ‘I want my baby,’ she whimpers but Max holds her arms, keeping her away.

A rumble of thunder cracks open the sky followed by a sudden deluge of rain. Max shuts the front door and tells Maddy to wait there, but she doesn’t want to and she wonders if the storm is inside her, too, because she can feel it building. Jamie is in the living room she has come to know so well. He steals a glance at her over his shoulder then flicks from one channel to the next, the volume rising, louder and louder so it hurts Maddy’s ears. She wants to hold Sam so much, kiss his flushed cheeks. When are they going to give him back to her? A flash of lightning illuminates his startled face. Alison sits on the sofa holding him, kissing his cheeks, his hair, his hands, but he wants to be with Maddy, she can sense he wants his mummy. Alison descends into noisy heaving sobs, clutching Sam so tightly that Max gently loosens her grip, whispering to her as he does. When Sam roots around her chest for milk, she lifts her top up and after a few false starts, she breast-feeds him, rocking back and forth.

A crescendo of rain wipes out all other noise. Maddy imagines standing outside soaked to the skin, screaming to be heard, watching Max through the glass, in this other life of his. She relives the moment she first saw inside this house. The shock of seeing the same wallpaper and stair carpet as theirs. Max’s face beaming out from photos with his secret family.