‘I’m not proud of what I did that day,’ she said. ‘But I … I’d had a few drinks after I found that sheet of music. I was just so upset. I went to your dad’s school and got him out of there. Dragged him out with me, in the middle of his lunch break, with all his colleagues around.’ She shook her head again.

‘Cecilie tried to stop me,’ she continued. ‘Mari’s mother. But I was so angry, so furious. Luckily your father just came along with me. He didn’t want to make an even bigger scene.’ She was crying now, reliving everything. ‘Jimmy insisted on driving as I was…’ She made a slightly flapping movement with her arms. ‘I’m not clear on all the details of what happened that day, but Tobias was at nursery. I can’t remember where you were.’

Even after so many years her voice trembled.

‘Me neither,’ Even said.

‘Anyway, Jimmy didn’t want us to go home until we’d talked things through. He didn’t want us to argue in front of you and your brother. And I have to admit, I wasn’t really arguing – I was just yelling most of the time. Screaming. Howling.’

She grabbed the salt cellar on the table. Turned it upside down, round and round. Then put it back.

‘But he admitted to it?’ Even asked. ‘He admitted that you were right?’

Susanne didn’t speak for a moment. Then she nodded and dried her tears. ‘I don’t know how far we’d driven, when he…’

Was she going to tell him everything? Was she really going to do that?

No, he would never talk to her again. Not ever.

She pushed back her shoulders. ‘Then he went funny,’ she said quickly. ‘Just passed out, all of a sudden.’

She could see her son searching for answers in her eyes, but she wasn’t going to give them to him. ‘We drove off the road. You know the rest.’

Her hands were shaking as she put the glass to her lips. God, she needed something stronger. Something to take the pain away.

‘Are you done?’ she asked. ‘I want to go back to Tobias.’

Even took a look at his sandwich, then said: ‘I guess I am.’

Susanne pushed her chair back and got up. Then she walked out of the canteen with her chin held high. Tobias was waiting.

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