‘We need to talk,’ he said. ‘Do you want a drink?’

‘I’ll have an apple juice,’ I said. I wasn’t much of a drinker at the best of times; Sean had cured me of that.

Mark gestured to the waiter – he was always confident with waiting staff – and asked for my juice. Then he sipped his beer and gazed into space as if trying to work out where to start.

Part of me wanted to tell him my news straight away. Then this frozen nothingness would be impossible and everything would be out in the open and this scene would be over. But I forced myself to wait.

Hold on. Don’t show your hand just yet. Let him go first.

He sipped his drink. I loved the way he drank – how he could have just the one, and then stop. I loved it, but it was also slightly scary – that ability not to get sucked in, to say no, to keep a clear head and retain his dignity.

With Sean, nothing was ever cut and dried. He was the one who’d called time on our marriage, but even after we’d started the divorce proceedings he’d still talked about us getting back together, and me giving him a second chance.

But someone like Mark could just decide that it was time to cut you loose, and that would be it: over and out.

The waiter delivered my apple juice. When he’d gone Mark drew a deep breath. ‘We need to tell them, Jenny.’

My mouth was dry: I drank some juice. I said, ‘Are you sure?’

‘I am,’ he said. ‘We should do it soon. I was thinking that I could take the three of you away somewhere. Maybe to France. They’ve never been abroad, have they? Make a treat of it. A special occasion.’

‘But Ava’s got exams.’

‘A break would do her good though, wouldn’t it? And her half-term holiday’s coming up. We could do it then. South of France, long weekend. What do you say?’

He’d looked up Ava’s half-term holiday dates. He knew she had such a thing as a half-term holiday. Sean had never got his head round that concept. It seemed to baffle him, and it wouldn’t have occurred to him to look it up. He probably wouldn’t even have been able to remember the name of the school she was at.

Under other circumstances, I might have tried to persuade Mark that we should wait. Let Ava get her exams out of the way. She’d worked so hard, been so conscientious. Last thing she needed was a bombshell family revelation right in the middle of it all.

But then, there were also some very good reasons why it shouldn’t wait any longer than it already had. And also… it wasn’t just about Ava.

‘Ellie has some tests coming up, too. But those will be out of the way by then,’ I said. ‘Anyway, we’ll have to ask them.’

He raised an eyebrow. ‘Ava will want to come, Jenny,’ he said. ‘You know she will. She’s so desperate to live a different kind of life.’