I checked the date on Lorelei’s letters. They had been written when Hazel was about four. The marriage had lasted another seven years, give or take.

‘What are you doing?’

I spun around to see Hazel standing behind me. I stared at the page in my hand. ‘It’s nothing,’ I said quickly. It was like being caught stealing – and I was stealing something: a part of Nick’s past. My first instinct was to hide the letter, but it was too late for that. Hazel came closer and looked down at it.

‘That’s my mum,’ she said.

‘It’s an old letter to your father.’

She took it out of my hand and read it. ‘She was in Hollywood for a bit,’ she said.

‘I’m sure she missed you.’ I realized that I was speaking as if I knew her. Strange to be so famous, a household name to millions, and yet so unknown. I wondered if Nick had really known her, or if she had always played a part with him too.

‘Did you meet her?’ Hazel asked.

‘Just once. At a party.’ I couldn’t help but think of that night as I put the letters back in the desk.

‘She told me that I could do anything. That I would be more beautiful than her.’ She tried to smile but it didn’t work. ‘She said people would write films just for me to star in them.’

‘It’s going to happen,’ I said, stroking her cheek and hoping a real smile would come. But her expression changed to confusion.

‘What are you doing in here?’ A note of suspicion, of faint mistrust.

‘It’s nothing. I just need to find something.’

‘Is it to help Dad?’

‘Yes. I think it will help.’

‘I’ll do it with you.’ She probably just wanted something to take her mind away from her mother for a short while.

‘There’s no need.’ I was sorry to push her away, but I couldn’t involve a child in this. I sat in Nick’s chair; it shook slightly. ‘And it’s not always safe to go poking around in the past.’

‘That’s what you’re doing,’ she insisted.

‘Yes. But I know what I’m getting into.’

‘All right.’ She looked down and her eyes teared up again before she left. Poor girl.