Jo stopped crying and attempted a watery smile. ‘Really?’

Ben nodded, feeling stronger and more confident than he had done in years. ‘Really.’

‘But, how? I know what Bella’s like …’ Jo was shaking her head again. ‘She won’t let you.’

Ben tried to pull himself up to his full height. ‘I honestly think that me going home tonight to be with her will help to get us back on an even keel, Mum. I admit, things haven’t been great before now, but I’m going to put that right. From now on, things will be different. Better. OK?’ Ben tilted his head, waiting for Jo’s confirmation.

Jo held his gaze for a few seconds, before she nodded, apparently convinced. ‘OK.’

Together, they made their way upstairs and into the nursery, where Elodie was sleeping soundly. Ben packed her things into her little pink suitcase and gave it to Jo to carry. Then they both peered into the cot, watching her sleep. ‘It seems so awful to wake her,’ Jo whispered.

Ben smiled. ‘She won’t wake up. Watch this.’ With that, he leaned into the cot and un-tucked her bedding, before scooping her up into the crook of his arm in one fluid movement. She squirmed slightly and emitted a loud sigh but, as Ben had predicted, she barely stirred.

He carried her downstairs and allowed Jo to open the front door and the car door, so that he could gently deposit her into her car-seat and strap her in. Still, she didn’t wake. Ben turned to take her suitcase from Jo. ‘See? It takes a lot to wake her once she’s asleep.’

Jo smiled and peered hungrily into the back seat, while Ben loaded their things into the boot.

When he was ready to go, he bent down and hugged Jo as tightly as he could. ‘I’m so sorry about this but we will be back really, really soon.’

He felt Jo nod into his chest. ‘And you’ll let me know what happens? Whether she’s lost the baby?’

‘Of course I will.’

‘Promise?’ Jo said in a muffled voice.

Ben released his grip and held her at arm’s length. He tilted his head so that he could look her properly in the eye. ‘I promise,’ he said fiercely.

Chapter Thirty-Five

I opened the bathroom door and walked out into the bedroom, smiling to myself. I should never have agreed to Ben taking Elodie to visit Jo. She would no doubt be spending the whole time poisoning him against me and persuading him not to return. It was only when I got to work this morning that it hit me what a mistake it had been and how potentially dangerous it was. I needed to think of something that would get him home as quickly as possible, so that I could re-assert my authority and I knew that the suggestion of a potential miscarriage would bring him running. I could easily fake it when he got here.

‘What are you smiling at?’ Leo drawled from his bed, where he was propped up against his headboard, smoking a cigarette.