‘Does Dad know?’

Mark winced. He opened his mouth as if he was about to protest, then thought better of it.

‘Sean does know. Yes.’

‘And he knew all along?’

‘Yes. He knew all along.’

‘So what happened? You were married when you met Mum… and then when she got pregnant, I guess you didn’t want to know?’

‘She didn’t tell me,’ Mark said. ‘I didn’t find out till much later.’

‘You’re not Ellie’s dad, are you?’

‘No.’

‘Well, that explains a lot.’

He frowned. ‘Explains what?’

‘Why you’re not really that interested in her.’

‘That’s not fair. I’ve made every effort with Ellie.’

‘Hardly. You’ve made a token effort. And Mum’s probably had to remind you to do that.’

Suddenly he looked more angry than wounded. ‘You shouldn’t speak to me like that.’

‘You don’t have any right to tell me what to do.’

‘I’m your father.’

I shook my head. ‘As far as I’m concerned, you’re just someone who showed up out of the blue.’

A shadow fell across the table: Mum, back from saying goodnight to Ellie. She said, ‘What’s going on?’

I got to my feet. Miraculously, now Mum was here I was able to move again.

‘I know,’ I said. ‘Mark’s worried you’ll be angry with him, so just for the record, he didn’t tell me. I guessed.’

Mum looked from me to Mark and back to me again. She looked so horrified I almost felt sorry for her.

‘Ava, I was just trying to do what I thought was best at the time,’ she said. ‘I never would have wanted to hurt you. You girls are the most important thing in the world to me. You know that.’

‘Yeah? Well, you’ve got a funny way of showing it.’

And with that I got up and walked away from them both.

She did get up to follow me, but only once I was already nearly at the door. I turned the handle and let myself out, and found myself in the hotel corridor, suddenly completely alone.

Eleven

Jenny

When I got out of the bar I couldn’t see her anywhere.

She couldn’t possibly have gone far…

Why hadn’t I been quicker off the mark?

Stop. Think. I had to get this right.

This was sensible Ava, with her sound instinct for self-preservation. Who’d never had a boyfriend, or smoked, or got drunk on cider and been sick, or got up to any of the other foolish things I had done myself when I was around her age.

Ava, who didn’t take risks.

She’d had a shock. A terrible shock. But she was still the same girl.

I hurried off up the stairs to the corridor where our rooms were, and caught sight of her with her keycard in her hand just as she was about to let herself in.

‘Ava! Thank goodness. I thought you might have taken off somewhere.’

She hadn’t gone out to wander round the streets, or walk in the moonlight by the beach. She wasn’t about to fall victim to muggers or worse. This was Ava, and she’d responded to the news that Mark was her father by leaving the bar and going off to bed. In spite of the furious coldness of the look she was giving me, I could have cried with relief.