Jenna removed the spacer from her bag and showed Hope’s mother how it worked, explaining exactly what she had to do. ‘It’s really that simple.’

‘She’s due a dose now,’ Elaine said. ‘Could you check we do it right?’

Jenna watched, made a few suggestions, and explained to Hope exactly why it was important for her to take the drug.

‘I breathe in that space thing every time?’

‘Every time.’

‘If I do that can I keep Black?’

Elaine sighed. ‘No, sweetie. Black has to go.’

Hope’s eyes filled with tears. ‘But I love him. I can’t send him back to that horrid place. I made him a promise. I promised him he had a home now.’

Feeling tears in her own eyes, Jenna blinked rapidly, feeling every bit of Elaine’s anguish as a mother.

Elaine sank onto the sofa and shook her head. ‘I have to take him back, Hope.’ Her voice cracked. ‘We can’t keep him here. I can’t risk going through what I went through the other night with you. I know it’s hard, but we have no choice.’

‘But I promised him he’d have a home and be loved.’ Hope was sobbing now, great tearing sobs that shook her tiny body. ‘I promised him, Mummy, and I can’t break a promise. He’ll be all on his own again. He’ll think no one loves him.’

‘I’ll have him.’ Jenna blurted the words past the lump in her throat and then stood in stunned silence, absorbing two things. Firstly, that she’d just got herself a dog, and secondly that making that decision had felt incredibly liberating.

For once she’d thought about herself. Not Clive. Not her mother. Herself.

Realising that everyone was looking at her, she shrugged. ‘I’d like to have him. Really.’ She looked at Hope. ‘And I’ll love him and give him a good home. So you won’t have broken your promise…’

A tearful Elaine exchanged glances with Ryan. ‘You want to take the dog?’

‘I do.’ Jenna spoke the words firmly, almost defiantly. Like a wedding ceremony, she thought with wry humour. Do you take this dog…? Only she knew without a flicker of doubt that the dog would never disappoint her. ‘I really do. My daughter will be thrilled. And any time you want to come and see him, or meet up on the beach to throw a stick or two, you just bang on my front door…’

Ryan took a deep breath. ‘Jenna, perhaps you should think about this—’

‘I’ve thought about it for about thirty years. I’ve wanted a dog since I was a child.’

But her mother had said no. Then Clive had said no.