‘Poppy’s been asking what’s wrong.’

She looked away, unable to answer him.

‘You can’t punish her like this,’ her dad admonished.

‘I’m not punishing her.’

‘You’ve barely spoken to her since Friday evening, nor have you hugged her, kissed her or offered any other kind of comfort.’ Malcolm lowered himself onto the edge of the bed. ‘I’ve been watching you. The way you’re behaving you may as well just say you think she’s guilty. While you’re up here doing heaven knows what, that poor child is downstairs beside herself. You think this is hard for you, Julia, but what about her? Imagine how she’s feeling. She watched another boy die, her classmate, and then she’s accused of hurting him.’ Malcolm shook his head. ‘Poppy hasn’t deviated from her story once. If she doesn’t doubt herself, then you shouldn’t doubt her either.’

Julia stared at her dad, wide-eyed with fright. His angry tone was an unwelcome flashback to her childhood when he would yell and posture at her mum.

‘I’m sorry, you’re right,’ she stuttered.

‘I know you’re feeling het up about the boy’s mother, but you need to get some perspective. Are you even sure the bullying happened like you think it did?’

Julia was horrified. ‘How can you ask me that?’

‘I recall you having a bit of a fall-out with some girls during your third year at Rushbrooke but the vast majority of the time you were happy there and did well. Your reports said the same thing. Your mum and I never had any concerns about you.’

Julia lost her cool.

‘You probably don’t remember how upset I was because you were too busy being horrible to Mum!’

Far from being annoyed by her comment, her dad nodded sadly.

‘I wasn’t always the best husband.’

‘You were terrible. Sometimes I don’t know why Mum came back.’

‘Oh, Julia, if only things were that black and white.’

She stared, open-mouthed, as her dad’s face crumpled. The only time she’d ever seen him cry was at her mum’s funeral.

‘Dad, why are you upset?’

‘I loved your mum so much.’ He removed his glasses and wiped his cheeks. ‘But she didn’t love me in the same way.’

‘That’s rubbish,’ Julia retorted.

‘I know you don’t want to believe it but it’s true. Her moving out was nothing to do with me forcing her to leave. She went because she was having an affair.’

Julia was furious at his distortion of the past. She remembered how upset her mum had been before she left, how Malcolm had given her no alternative but to go.

‘That’s not what happened. She went because you didn’t want her working and she got fed up with you nagging her.’