She feels terrible, then. She kneels before him, and takes him in her arms, and says how sorry she is. She promises never to walk out on him during a row. She tells him she loves him and she means it. No wonder he’s a bit overprotective sometimes – she completely understands. She feels so sorry for him – she just wishes he had explained all this to her before.

Two months later, she is pregnant, and whatever unease she has felt during that incident is overwhelmed by the tidal wave of Matty’s delight – and hers. A proper stepdad for Estella, another baby – it’s the family unit she’s always wanted.

It’s hard when Matthew starts going out more – he says he’s just doing all the things he won’t be able to do when the new baby comes and work is just crazy as well and anyway, it’s easy to get paranoid when you’re pregnant, he tells her, and he’s a doctor, he should know. It’s the hormones, he explains. By then, she knows better than to say she’s had one child already, she knows what hormones are.

When he’s home, he cooks lots of healthy meals, broccoli and spinach, even though she hates the stuff. It becomes a running joke between them, how many different ways he can disguise it. He says if she doesn’t eat it, he’ll hold her nose and force it down. She’s got the welfare of his son to think of, after all, that has to come first now – she mustn’t be selfish, he says, holding the fork up and nudging it against her lips. And shouldn’t she be setting a better example for Estella, eating her greens? What kind of mother is she? ‘We’re going to make Mummy eat it, aren’t we?’ he says to Estella, winking at her, and Estella, who is a miniature version of her mother, with her little fringe, looks from Matty to her mother and back again, trying to work out how she is supposed to react. Shelley tells herself that even though she doesn’t find this very funny, it’s just a joke, and she smiles at her daughter, to reassure her.