‘Everyone needs to be told.’ He looked at Cris for support. ‘And Kaz and Rosie, they need to know the truth. People need to understand that the pouch isn’t safe and then …’

‘Then what?’ she said.

The alterative, it struck him, would have been Kaz and Rosie choosing natural birth, and all the risks it comes with. The alternative for him, for Cris …? The pouch had made their family possible.

‘The pouch is worth protecting, I think,’ she said, almost under her breath. ‘Especially now we’re offering natural birth as well. People will be able to choose.’

Karl was staring at the director now, and Cris was staring at her too. She looked calm again, but the quieter she spoke the more her words seemed to resonate. Karl sat back down, felt a sudden stinging behind his eyes.

‘It is a good thing, that the pouch was accepted,’ she said. ‘I believe that. I believe the world is better, for many people, for all sorts of people, because we are here.’

‘Our family …’ Cris said.

‘Yes, like your family.’ She looked between them, one to the other and back. ‘Many other families, too. Parenthood finally, truly, shared. Men at last able to experience carrying their child. Women who would have been unable to carry a child naturally, for any reason, illness, genetics … I became a mother at fifty-one. The pouch gave me that.’

Karl knew that what she was saying was true. And he didn’t want to shout any more.

‘I’m sorry I smashed your photo frame.’

‘It’s OK,’ she said. ‘A frame can be replaced.’

He held his head in his hands.

‘You can sit here for a while,’ she was saying. ‘If it would help.’

But the stinging behind his eyes was worsening and he didn’t want to be here, in this beautiful room, with this extraordinary view over London, discussing how the pouch had made his family possible, or how it had caused them so much pain. He wanted to go home, and be with his family.

‘I am so sorry for your loss,’ she said again. ‘I wish there was something more I could do. I wish you both strength.’

He stood, though he was shaking, and he stumbled against the table again, this time mumbling an apology, and then he was in the lift with Cris, who was holding him tight. But Karl was slipping, now his anger had gone, he was slipping down onto the floor and making a noise that he didn’t understand until they were out in reception and he was upright again, and at last he understood that he hadn’t needed to blame. He had needed to cry.