She had been happy, too, that Milton had agreed to stay with them. He had been honest with her; he had not promised that the arrangement would be permanent, and had explained his continued presence by a concern for her safety. He could say that if he liked, but Sakura hoped that there was more to it than that. She certainly felt safe, and nothing had happened since they had arrived that gave her any indication that they were in danger from Takashi, but if that was the excuse he needed in order to justify his continued presence in her life—and in her bed—then she was not about to question it. She had long since decided that she would like to spend more time with him and see if their relationship was strong enough to last the course, but she knew that it was not her decision alone. She knew that he had doubts that he would have to satisfy before he was able to make a decision, and told herself that he was worth her patience.

“Mommy?” Yamato said.

“Yes?”

“Can I open it now?”

She frowned. “Open what?”

“The box.”

“What box, Yamato-chan?”

The child got up and led the way into his small room. There was a box under the bed that Sakura had not seen before, and he pulled it out.

“Where did that come from?”

“Uncle John left it for me.”

“When?”

“When I went to bed. He said that I could open it at breakfast. We’ve had breakfast, so can I open it?”

She nodded, an uncomfortable emptiness in her stomach as she realised what the box might portend. Yamato tore away the tape that secured the lid and opened the box. There were two new Transformers inside.

“Wow,” Yamato exclaimed, clapping his hands together in spontaneous wonder. “Look, Mommy. Optimus Prime and Megatron.”

The boy held up the toys, but Sakura’s attention was focused on what else was inside.

Money.

A lot of money.

She took out a bundle of banknotes and saw that it was composed of ten-thousand-yen notes. She riffled the edge of the bundle; there must have been a hundred notes there, maybe a million yen in total. She put the bundle down and took out the others, stacking them up until she had a pile that was five wide and five tall. She was dazed by it, and it took her a moment to work out that there must have been nearly twenty-five million yen. She and Miyasato had looked at how far their savings would stretch in the United Kingdom, and she knew that the money in the box would be enough to buy them a nice little house.

But Sakura didn’t dwell on that.

Milton wouldn’t have left the money here—like this, without telling her—unless he had made the decision that it was time for him to go.

She wondered whether she would see him again.

* * *