Funny, that. I wondered for a second about Tom. He hadn’t wasted much time getting sympathy from her. Had he really been upset? For the first time I thought of him in the house on his own, sitting there in the evenings without anyone to talk to. He didn’t have many friends, just colleagues he’d sometimes go for a drink with. He’d never lived alone; it must have seemed very strange. Lonely. I knew he’d be drinking more than he should, then stopped myself. What he did now had nothing to do with me.

“And that poor son of his.” She gave a heavy sigh. “Having another broken home.”

I wanted to tell her there was a common denominator involved here and it wasn’t me, but there was no point. Women didn’t leave men. That was the rule my mother lived by. They should not just abandon their husbands. They should forgive and forget and maybe encourage the man into a hobby that took him out of the house, preferably every evening and weekend.

“How’s Dad?” I asked, interrupting my mother’s prophecy that Josh would end up on the streets, a drug addict, unemployed: helpless and hopeless because I’d walked out on his father. She hadn’t asked how I was or even where I was. This was her problem, not mine.

“He’s devastated,” she said. She started to cry again. “We both are. I don’t know how you could do this to us.”

In the background I could hear my dad asking where all the chocolate biscuits had gone to. Like me, he was clearly finding food a comfort in his hour of need.

“At least we’ll be spared the shame for a while,” my mother continued. “Your sister’s invited us to stay. We’re leaving next week, on Monday. ‘Get an open return,’ she said. ‘Stay as long as you like.’”

My sister, Fiona, lived in Australia now. That invitation must have been ripped out of her. I knew she would have told them to get an open ticket because she wanted the chance to tell our mother to leave at a moment’s notice.

“Mum, would you mind if I stayed at your house while you’re away? I could look after your plants and keep the house safe.”

“Keep the house safe! I couldn’t trust you with a key. Not after what happened last time.”

“Last time” was twenty years ago when I’d been mugged in broad daylight and their house keys were in my purse.

“It would make things so much easier for me.” I thought of looking for a flat, of spending money I didn’t have. I didn’t feel particularly at home at my parents’ house now, but it would be a lot better than a rental. “I’ll be careful, I promise.”