‘But how could you… get rid of it… and not tell me?’ He smacked his hand flat on the table. The sound silenced the coffee shop for a moment. Max felt all eyes turn to them, but he stayed focused on Ali. He’d wanted to ask her that question for so long.

‘He made me. I was really scared.’ She looked like she was about to cry.

‘We could have sorted it out ourselves,’ he said, softer now. He reached for her hand. ‘It was our baby.’ He stroked her palm.

‘I didn’t know what to do.’

‘We could have run away together.’

She moved her hand and sat back. ‘Dad wouldn’t let me contact you, then he packed me off to my aunt’s. Cut me off completely.’

Max sat up straight, his eyes darted around the cafe. ‘How do you know he’s not here now?’

Ali smiled. ‘Because he died of a heart attack two years ago.’

Max spluttered a laugh. ‘Wow, I can’t say I’m sorry.’

‘I know, I know,’ she said, lowering her gaze, ‘but he was still my dad.’

‘Can we go somewhere else?’ Maddy, Emily and Chloe seemed distant now, another life entirely.

They stood up. For a moment they stared at each other and the years fell away. Max stroked Ali’s arm. She’d been torn away from him when he loved her. Did he still?

At a park a short walk away, they sat on the grass in the shade of a laburnum tree.

‘Remember when we used to meet at the coffee shop near my flat?’ He grinned at the memory of them sitting in a booth huddled together. A woman stopped at their table one day and said what a gorgeous couple they were.

‘Yeah, we used to talk for hours, didn’t we?’

‘We had so many plans to travel and develop properties and have loads and loads of kids in a massive house.’

‘And dogs and chickens and a goat, don’t forget.’

‘Oh yeah, you were always going on about having a frigging goat.’ He shook his head in mock disbelief and they both laughed.

‘It ended so suddenly. I was really upset that you didn’t come and find me,’ she said, kicking off her sandals.

‘I had no idea where you’d gone.’

‘Dad sent me to my aunt’s place in Cornwall.’

‘And that’s where you got rid of it?’

Ali was silent.

‘I should have had a say.’ He pressed his knuckles into the grass.

‘I didn’t have a choice either. You know what Dad was like.’ She played with her keys. Her warm perfume wafted towards him churning up memories.

‘Well I’m here now.’

‘It’s too late, Adam, I’m with someone else.’