Shauna told her. Then she sat down in the living room with Aysha, who was in tears, and wished to God she had a normal husband like any other woman – a stockbroker, a lawyer or even a fucking road sweeper – and not one who kept disappearing off the face of the earth when he was bloody needed here.

Josh and Claire had a lovely day together, hunting for the perfect apartment.

‘So I’m going to be your mistress,’ said Claire.

‘Don’t say that. That’s not how I think of you. You’re what you’ve always been: the woman I love.’

They found the perfect apartment at East 76th Street, on the Upper East Side – a vast place lit by vivid sunlight and with a panoramic view of the park and the New York City skyline beyond it. Josh put down a retainer, and they went back to the hotel to celebrate over dinner. When they got there, the receptionist discreetly said to Josh:

‘Mr Flynn, your wife called.’ The woman did not so much as glance at Claire, but Claire felt her cheeks burning all the same.

Josh felt his happy mood evaporate. Aysha? he thought. The baby? ‘What did she say?’

‘She said you were to phone her, that it was urgent.’

‘I’ll do that. Thank you,’ said Josh, and in silence he went with Claire over to the lift and up to the room. He sat at the desk in the window, and dialled out. Claire went into the bathroom. He knew she couldn’t bear to listen to him talking to Shauna.

Claire sat on the edge of the bath while Josh’s voice droned on in the sitting room. When he stopped speaking, she came out. Josh was sitting there at the desk, staring out of the window.

‘Josh? What is it?’ she asked.

He half-turned in the chair, held out a hand. Claire went to him and he pulled her down on to his lap with a sigh. He looked like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders and she felt suddenly afraid.

‘Josh?’ she queried, linking her arms around his neck and gazing into his face.

‘I’m sorry, babe. I have to go back,’ he said. ‘Family trouble.’

‘Bad?’ she asked. She felt crushed. He was about to abandon her. Once again.

‘Pretty bad. I have to be there.’ His grey eyes held hers. ‘You do understand?’

‘Yeah. Sure,’ she said with forced lightness, thinking of her, his wife, Shauna.

He’d said he was going to get a divorce, but she couldn’t dare believe that. Was this the way it was going to be for them, like, forever? Snatched moments of happiness, and then he’d go and she’d have to wait and wonder if his guilt was so bad about his family over there that he might not come back this time, or the next, or the time after that?