Excusing herself from the table, Olivia hurried off to her room where she might be alone. She knew her father shouldn’t say those things, but she had eyes in her head; she could see the difference and it was not for the better. Not only that, but she had an enormous appetite. She had kidded herself at first that it was because her body was still ‘eating for two’, but deep down she knew that she was constantly hungry because she was so unhappy. She hadn’t just lost her baby, but the man she had loved most in the world, or at least the man she thought she loved, but she obviously didn’t know Ted at all, because the man she had fallen for would never have walked away from his pregnant girlfriend.

Not only that but her mother’s mobility had worsened since their departure, and she now needed a wheelchair if she were to do more than cross a room, which meant they had had to move her bedroom downstairs, something which she was sure her father blamed her for, not that she could disagree, because she also thought it was her fault.

‘One stupid moment, that’s all it took,’ she muttered to herself as she opened up a paper bag of Parma Violets and popped a couple into her mouth. On reflection she wondered how she could have been so unlucky. She had only had one intimate encounter – what were the odds that she would fall pregnant the first time? But dwelling on what should have been did you no good; her ever expanding waist was proof of that. She would have to work hard, lose the weight and get her life back so that she could carry on as though none of this had happened.

That had been her plan, but as she well knew, things don’t always go according to plan. Many years passed and Olivia’s mother’s condition had worsened to the point where she became bedridden, and William threw himself into his work, rarely returning home until everyone had gone to bed. In some respects Olivia preferred her father’s absence, but she knew it hurt her mother, even if Catherine never actually admitted it. Instead she tried to encourage her daughter to make a life for herself, but Olivia chose to stay at home and care for her mother, despite Catherine’s protests.

‘Please, Liv, get out there and make something of yourself,’ her mother pleaded. ‘I can’t bear to watch you waste your life away. I know you think he won’t look after me if you go, but he’ll hire someone to take care of me, like he did when you …’ she hesitated before continuing, ‘… went away. He knows he can’t leave me on my own.’

‘But I don’t want anyone else to look after you,’ sniffed Olivia. ‘You’re my mum.’