Bonnie took a sip of her tea, unable suddenly to look at him.

‘And you never heard from … you know who?’

David shook his head. ‘No – not a peep. But then, none of us expected that he would get in touch, not after what he did.’

‘So, why now?’ Bonnie couldn’t help but ask. ‘Why does Genie want to know me now?’

‘Anna dying left a hole that was far too large for me to fill,’ he said. ‘In the past, Genie had been quite dismissive about the idea of seeking you out, but now I’m wondering if that was more to do with Anna than Genie herself. She was fiercely loyal to Anna,’ he explained. ‘She would have known that expressing an interest in locating you would have hurt her mum, so she talked herself out of it.’

‘I suppose that makes sense,’ Bonnie allowed. ‘You never want to let your parents down, do you? It’s why I never told my own about Evangeline – I foolishly convinced myself that it would devastate them, when in fact, the opposite was probably true.’

David looked ashen.

‘I’m so sorry,’ he said. ‘I should have supported you better back then – offered to tell your mother and father myself.’

‘No.’ Bonnie was adamant. ‘It wouldn’t have made any difference. I was damn stubborn, and I wanted Evangeline to have the best chance at happiness. That was you and Anna. And she has been happy, hasn’t she? My girl?’

Bonnie’s voice had cracked as she said the last, and David waited a moment or two before replying.

‘I think we made her happy,’ he confirmed, nodding as if to reassure himself. ‘But she is definitely not happy now. The thing is, Genie blames herself for the accident – which is ridiculous, of course – but she can’t seem to move past it. Until she went out to New Zealand, she had barely left the house in a year. She gave up her job – a job she loved – and only saw a handful of her friends. It’s been terrible for her.’

Bonnie was about to offer more comfort, when David surprised her by smiling.

‘That’s why it was so nice to see that photo just now,’ he went on. ‘She looks like her old self again – and happier than I can recall her being in a very long time.’

‘Tui has that effect on people,’ Bonnie told him, smiling now herself as she pictured her rambunctious daughter. ‘It’s impossible to feel sad around her for long.’

‘She sounds like her mum,’ David said quietly. ‘You always had that same effect on me, if I remember rightly. Before Anna came back, I leant on you so much. I never forgot that.’

‘I can barely remember what I was like then,’ Bonnie told him honestly. ‘I have been trying to, over the past few weeks.’