His cries grew louder and she felt her heart rate increase. One tiny hand fluttered against the skin of her neck. There’s something wrong with him, she thought. I’m doing something wrong. Maybe he’s hungry.

She pulled her T-shirt up and exposed her breasts. They were large and swollen. She tried to guide him to her nipple. His mouth opened and closed against it, but he couldn’t grip it. She tried again, chasing his mouth with her nipple. A bead of liquid formed and trickled down his cheek on to his lips.

He stilled, and she managed to press her nipple to his lips.

They opened, and he began to suck.

She watched, in awe, as she fed, for the first time, a baby. It was painful, the suction more powerful than she had expected. After a few minutes, some instinct told her to switch to her other breast; Seb latched on immediately.

‘You’re a greedy little thing, aren’t you?’ she said. ‘But you have as much as you want.’

Ten minutes later he was asleep. She lay there, watching him rise and fall on her chest. It was amazing how quickly and completely she had fallen in love with him. She knew that every parent felt this way, but to her he was the most beautiful person – the most beautiful thing – she had ever seen. She had no idea that it was possible to feel this way, to love someone to the point you would do anything for them.

The thought brought tears to her eyes, partly for herself and Seb and the situation they were in, but mainly for her parents. If they felt about her even one tenth of how she felt about Seb, then losing her must have been unbearable for them in a way she had not been able to understand until now.

And worse, they would not get to meet their grandchild. They would not even know he’d been born.

The man had asked her if she wanted an abortion when she realized she was pregnant. She asked how; he said he didn’t know. He would not be able to get medical help, so maybe with some medication, or whisky? He offered to find a method.

But it might be risky, he said.