‘Sounds like the kind of thing you’d do,’ Gwyneth said. ‘Take it upon yourself to track down our family and bring us together in time for Christmas, you determined stubborn amazing daughter of mine.’

‘And you,’ Viv says to her. ‘You said you wouldn’t come here, but you did, darling! And so did my granddaughter,’ she adds, smiling with tears in her eyes as she takes Lumin in. ‘My granddaughter,’ she repeats again.

‘My great-niece!’ Rita adds. The two older women both impulsively hug Lumin and Viv grabs Gwyneth’s hand and pulls her in for a hug too.

Gwyneth is hesitant at first but then she joins them, laughing with her daughter. Then she puts her hand out to Amber, her cousin. Amber goes to take it but then she sees the stubby remains of her fingers. She thinks of Katy and the fact that she might be alive if Amber hadn’t gone for that appointment about prosthetics. It all goes back to the day Gwyneth had abandoned her. It was her cousin’s fault! And yet there they all were, hugging each other, oblivious to the fact.

Amber turns on her heel and strides off.

A few hours later, Amber is sitting in the darkness of her sparse bedroom. The phone has long stopped ringing, the doorbell hasn’t echoed around the flat for at least an hour. They’ve all finally accepted she needs to be alone. She stares at her damaged hand. How different her life would be if her cousin hadn’t been so selfish.

The life she could have had stretches out before her. She could have grown up to be a famous renovator with clients around the world. She would have left Winterton Chine, maybe lived somewhere exciting like Paris or even the US. Or Iceland, like Gwyneth had got the chance to with her perfect hands. And then Katy, she might have lived. But then Amber wouldn’t have met Jasper. The first conversation they’d struck up had been all about her hand.

Amber allows herself even darker thoughts. Maybe that wouldn’t have been such a bad thing. She wouldn’t have had Katy. There would be no grief, no gaping hole inside her. There might have been another child. One that would still be alive today.

How could she think that? Amber catches sight of herself in the mirror. She sees the streaks of mascara down her cheeks. The horrible sadness in her eyes. And her deformed useless hand.

Her phone starts buzzing again. This time it’s Jasper. She’d been so hopeful travelling back with him, her hand on his leg. But the arrival of the woman who had changed the course of her life had dragged her back kicking and screaming to square one again.