‘We’ll pack up and follow you back to the house,’ Matt says. ‘Chloe! Take those headphones off and get your things together. No, you can’t stay here on your own,’ he adds as she begins to protest.

‘Well, maybe,’ Chloe says, standing up and sweeping her towel off her sun-lounger and showering us all with sand, ‘you should have thought about it before you booked a holiday house with a swimming pool, right next to the sea!’

I think Matt is going to slap her, but he turns on Amy. ‘We need to talk,’ he says.

I don’t look at my father, either, so that I don’t have to witness his pain. I watch Luca instead as he walks up the hill, Lotte perched on his shoulders, Theo’s face turned up to him, like a small pale moon.

I can still hear Lotte’s screams echoing in my ears.

13

AMY

She pulls her shirt on and puts her suncream back in her bag. Thank God Luca’s here and has such a calming effect on the kids – but she feels terrible for not realizing that the children might be scared of water. She and Matt have pretty much given up taking Lotte and Theo to any of their normal after-school clubs; they haven’t had the energy or the will. But Theo has had swimming lessons at school once a fortnight. He’s never said anything, but she feels a ripple of sadness and shame shiver through her when she thinks of him standing, thin and frail, at the edge of the municipal swimming pool, the rest of his class noisy and rambunctious, fighting his fear by himself.

She heads back up the hill towards the holiday house with Matt and Chloe, Nick and their father following behind. She’d been so tired she must have fallen asleep, and she’d only woken up when she’d heard Nick shouting and seen Luca running up the beach with her limp daughter in his arms. But even if she’d been awake, she wouldn’t have stopped him. It seemed harmless enough, jumping over small waves on a sandy beach; he is their grandfather after all. Her mouth is dry and her stomach is tight with nerves. She can feel the heat radiating from Matt, his skin slick with sweat. He’s an alarming shade of puce. He’s going to insist their dad leaves, and she doesn’t know if she should stand up to him or not, or whether Bethany will support her or Nick.

When they reach the house, the front door is ajar. It’s quiet, too silent for a house with two children. She stops just inside the sitting room, letting her eyes adjust to the comparative gloom after the brilliance of the sunshine outside.

‘Where the hell is everyone?’ Matt asks.

She feels the first stirrings of fear. Chloe slides past them and disappears into her room.