‘We’re not taking over until we finish school,’ Micky said, methodically adding three sugar cubes to his tea while Lola picked up the rest of the explanation.

‘Nadia – you met her at the factory tour – she’s going to handle the company for the next few years and finish all the legal stuff to do with the company merger.’ Lola looked between her brother and Percy, lifting her shoulders as she grinned contentedly. ‘And then the three of us will take over once we graduate from university, together, as a family.’

Both Lottie’s and Ellie’s eyes shot up at the mention of ‘family’, it having become a dirty word since their dispute, and Lottie shifted uncomfortably under her princess’s piercing dark stare. It took only a second for Jamie to catch on, his eyes narrowing between the two of them with such intensity she was sure he could read their minds.

‘You were lucky to have such a wonderful father.’ Lottie couldn’t help the pointed tone as she spoke, and prayed that no one but Ellie would pick up on it. ‘A close family is very special.’

Stirring her tea, Lola hummed an agreement, the sound strangely melancholy. ‘It wasn’t always a perfect family, though.’ She didn’t look up from the whirlpool at her fingertips, like she was stirring up a memory. ‘Alfred had to make his own family. That’s what happens when you have a bad parent sometimes.’

The room went still and Lottie felt Ellie stiffen, her fingers twitching with the strain of not looking at Jamie or Lottie. It was no secret that Lola and Micky’s grandfather was the man behind the twisted Hamelin Formula, and, although he’d tried to make amends for it and hide it away, nothing could ever make up for the terrible acts he’d committed. Some evils are simply too great.

‘When you’re a little kid, all the stories tell you how important family is, how they matter above everything else, but it’s not true,’ she said, her voice soft. ‘Sometimes you’re lucky and the family you get given is great, like us with our mother and father, but sometimes you’re less lucky and you have to find your own family.’

In perfect unison, Lola and Micky looked up at the painting and, as if like minds had melded together, Micky finished the sentiment.

‘Alfred found his own family, with our mother, and everyone who helped to build Tompkins Confectionary.’

Their words settled over Lottie’s skin with the gentle touch of blossoms in spring, sweet and fleeting, and she was captured by it, not wanting to let the feeling go.

‘I think, for some people, the family you find is just as important,’ Lola went on, looking round the table with Micky, a shared look of warmth in their sky-blue eyes. ‘For some people, that family you find, they’re your real family.’