A pause. ‘Mea dragă,’ her mum sighs finally. ‘Your dad has lung cancer. Cathy’s a Macmillan nurse. I didn’t want to tell you like this, but Cathy thought I should.’ A sob plunges down the phone, smacks Beth in the face. She sways again. Her dad’s got cancer? She swallows hard. Smiles at Saskia. Wonders if she’s going to faint.

‘Are you there?’ her mum asks. ‘Did you hear me?’

Her chest isn’t working. It’s screwed so tightly that she can’t release it. Her lungs, airway, voice box all clamped shut.

‘Do you want to go outside?’ Saskia mouths, pointing at the fire door. ‘Talk out there?’

Beth looks at the door. If she’d been just a minute quicker, she’d be out there already. Talking to her mum without Saskia’s questioning eyes digging into her. Her friend has given her permission to create some distance now, but at what cost? She nods at Saskia, manages some sort of smile, then backs away.

‘I’m here, Mum,’ she whispers into her phone, avoiding eye contact with the other parents as she weaves her way towards the door.

‘Will you come and see us?’

Of course her mum would ask this. And of course she must go. Her dad deserves that at least, and her mum shouldn’t have to face this journey alone. But has Beth really got the strength for it? With everything else that’s going on?

‘Please, darling. I know it’s a long way, and your job is so busy. But say you’ll come.’

Beth sighs. ‘Of course I’ll come,’ she whispers. But she needs a moment to think it through, to make sure her lie is authentic. ‘I’ll get a flight back to Heathrow tomorrow,’ she says. ‘So it will be Friday in the UK by the time I get to yours.’

‘Oh thank you, darling, thank you. Your dad will be so happy to see you; we both will.’

‘Me too,’ Beth whispers, and listens as the line goes dead.

‘Heathrow, hey? Are you picking someone up?’

Beth twists round. Saskia is standing behind her. ‘Were you listening to my call?’ she demands.

‘What?’ Saskia asks, flustered by the venom in Beth’s tone. ‘I just caught the end—’

‘I have a stalker following me,’ Beth interrupts. ‘And you think it’s a good idea to creep up on me?’

Saskia’s hand flies up to her face. ‘Oh God, I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you.’

‘Well you did,’ Beth keeps going. ‘Look, I’m shaking,’ she says, holding her hand up horizontally, anything to distract Saskia from what she overheard.

‘God, I am so stupid. And poor you, darling. You seemed kind of relaxed about it yesterday. But of course you weren’t, you were just being brave. Let me do something, anything. I could collect the girls from school? Pick up some groceries?’