But I hated her silence and vowed to call Adrian later and ask him how she’d been, whether he wanted to hear from me or not.

‘Are you okay, Mum?’ Payton asked when we were finally driving home.

‘Of course, sweetheart,’ I gushed. Worrying about my mum after my dad walked out had taken up half my childhood and I didn’t want that for my kids.

‘Did you miss us this week?’

‘That is the stupidest question I’ve ever heard.’ I squeezed her knee. ‘I missed you and Sax like crazy.’

‘What about Dad?’ Her voice was so quiet I barely heard the question.

That lump welled in my throat again. ‘Yep. I missed him too.’

‘Then why aren’t you guys together anymore?’

I wondered if she’d grilled Adrian in this same way. I wondered what his answers had been if she had and somehow resisted the compulsion to ask.

‘We’re just going through a bit of a tricky time, but I’m sure we’ll get through this. And whatever happens, you need to remember that this is between Daddy and me. This decision has absolutely nothing to do with you and your brother, okay?’

It sounded like a stupid platitude even to my ears, but thankfully she seemed to have perked up by the time we got home. She played with Charlie a little and then headed to the couch to watch soccer videos on YouTube.

‘Only half an hour,’ I reminded her—she’d watch all night if not regulated.

My reunion with Saxon wasn’t much better.

‘Hello, sweetheart.’ I smiled at him when he arrived home, managing not to grab hold of him and gush as much as I had with Payton.

‘What’s for dinner?’ he asked, always thinking about his stomach.

‘Beef stir-fry, with lots of veggies,’ I said as I chopped some runner beans. Who knew whether they’d actually had any greens this past week? ‘But it won’t be for another hour so there’s some carrot cake if you’d like a snack?’ The boy had hollow legs.

‘No thanks.’ He pulled his lunch box out of his school bag, dumped it on the bench, made himself a peanut butter sandwich, and then started off towards his bedroom.

I cleared my throat. ‘Is that all you’ve got for your mother after not seeing her for a whole week?’

He turned slowly and glared at me. ‘What do you expect me to say?’

I flinched, too stunned to reprimand or even answer. As Saxon stomped off to his bedroom, an angry heat rushed through my body. It wasn’t a coincidence that my boy’s surly attitude had arrived exactly the same time his father had decided he could live without me. Normally I’d talk to Adrian if I had any concerns about the kids, but he wasn’t here, and this was his fault anyway.

Well, to hell with him—I wasn’t going to have my son shut me out just so that my husband didn’t look like the bad guy.

Abandoning the vegetables, I headed down the hallway to Saxon’s bedroom. My hand hovered over the door handle as I deliberated between knocking and barging right in. At the last moment—deciding it was better to not fly at my son like an angry bull—I knocked.