Audrey turned to smile at Phoebe, grateful to be spending this precious time with her granddaughters—at choir rehearsals and art classes—that might never have happened had she not known she was ill.

“Right, given you’ve made such a fantastic start today, there’s something I want to tell you all. I was going to wait until the end of the rehearsal, but I figure you’d probably like to hear it now. I had a call from the organizers of the concert last night. It looks like you lot are going to be on TV.”

A wave of excitement rippled around the room as Ben filled in the details: plans for the concert to be broadcast live on BBC 2 and about a telethon being organized to boost the money raised from ticket sales. But, hard as Audrey tried to concentrate on them, Ben’s words were hazy in her ears.

A mental calendar flipped through the weeks in her head. Seven weeks until the concert. That was all she had to manage, just seven weeks. And if the doctor was right, she should still have at least three months ahead of her. As Ben returned to the piano and started to play through the various harmonies he’d arranged, Audrey tried to reassure herself that it was going to be OK. She’d have to be horribly unlucky not to make it.

Chapter 23

Lily

Lily glanced around her boss’s office. The desk was empty except for a laptop and a pair of mobile phones side by side. The glass wall had a more expansive view of the Thames than Lily’s office, and the shelf of industry awards held more than Lily’s but only two more: Lily had counted.

She looked down at her phone and put it on silent just as Nisha came back into the room.

“Sorry to keep you waiting. And I’m sorry to drag you into the office on a Saturday afternoon. I hope I haven’t disrupted too many plans.”

Lily crossed her legs and shook her head, thinking of the empty house she’d left behind. An image flashed in her mind of Daniel strolling through Central Park, takeout coffee in one hand and phone in the other, reading her latest email and not finding time to respond.

“It’s fine. I need to do some work on the strategy paper this weekend anyway, so I might as well do it here.” She tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear, could feel it trying to edge loose again.

“So, the reason I wanted to have a quick chat, face-to-face, is to give you a heads-up. The US office is planning to make some changes—streamlining operations, merging some roles—all part of the drive to make the company more efficient. It’s likely that marketing is going to be one of the affected departments. They’re keen to centralize it in the States, which doesn’t mean there won’t be any department here in London, but they’re looking to keep a skeleton staff, possibly just junior roles. Nothing’s fixed in stone yet so there’s always room for discussion, but obviously I wanted to let you know before the announcement. There’s going to be an all-staff conference call with the US office on Monday afternoon.”