Her mum stretched out an arm and took Lily’s hand. Before Lily knew it was going to happen, there was a lump in her throat, tears in her eyes. She felt the truth rise into her mouth and sit readily on her tongue, felt the preemptive relief of disclosure: the strain her marriage had been under, Daniel’s suggestion that some space might do them good, her fears that she would not be able to fix whatever was wrong in their relationship when they were living thousands of miles apart. She could feel it all, ready to be divulged, ready to find a sympathetic listener and wise counsel in her mum.

The shrill beeping of her mum’s phone broke the silence.

“Oh, I’m sorry—I don’t know why the volume’s so loud. You need to show me how to turn it down. Let me switch it off. Oh . . . hang on a second.”

Lily blinked against her tears, her hand hanging limply by her side where her mum had let it go to read the message.

“Darling, I’m really sorry but I’m going to have to dash. You need to get on now anyway, don’t you?”

Something in her mum’s voice made Lily’s shoulders stiffen. “Why? What is it? What’s wrong?”

She watched the questions skim across her mum’s eyes, watched the two sides of a dilemma being weighed up in her mind.

“Nothing. Nothing bad, it’s just . . . Well, Jess forgot to tell me that a plumber’s coming to look at the shower and neither she nor Mia will be at home, so she’s asked if I could let him in.” Apprehension twitched between her mum’s eyebrows.

Lily got up, went to her desk, and bent down toward her computer, swiping the mouse to bring her screen back to life. “That’s fine, Mum. You go. I need to get this presentation done anyway.” Her tone was brusquer than she’d intended. She kept her head down, eyes on the screen, as she heard the rustle of her mum standing up to leave.

“I’m sorry, it’s just bad timing. But are you sure everything’s OK? Was there something you wanted to tell me?”

Lily shook her head, still staring at the screen. “No. Nothing.” She forced herself to stand upright and smile, trying to dissolve the tension. “It’s fine, Mum, you go. I’ll see you on Sunday for lunch.”

There was a brief hesitation before her mum stepped around the desk, folded her arms around Lily like a pair of giant wings, and hugged her gently.

Stay, Lily wanted to say. Please don’t go.

But instead she loosened herself from her mum’s embrace and took a step back. “You’d better get going. You don’t want to be late.”

Her mum looked at her, and Lily felt a succession of unspoken questions congeal between them. She walked over to the door, found Sophie at her desk, and asked her to accompany her mum back downstairs.

“Don’t work too late, will you, darling? And I’ll see you at the weekend.”