‘Send them up,’ she said, still standing, and aware that this was the last moment of peace she was going to have for quite some time. She wanted to take a moment to look out at the sky. The clouds were low, a deep vibrant grey, strikingly beautiful.

Then they were at the door. Thirty, forty people, she wasn’t even sure how many, came crowding into the room, all speaking. It was the first time the press had ever been allowed in here. And among them, she saw Piotr. She felt the blush spreading to her cheeks, even though she’d been having breakfast with him just two hours ago.

‘I’m never going to change my mind,’ she’d said.

‘I know.’

‘I have given it a lot of thought,’ she’d said.

‘Eva, I know.’

They’d discussed it the night before, so when he said that he knew, it was true. She just wanted to be sure. People had a habit of expecting others to change and she didn’t want him imagining he could change her. Though she was fairly certain that he didn’t want to. But with or without him there was a lot of work to do and Eva, it turned out, was not someone who could walk away leaving it undone.

‘I’m not having a child,’ she’d said, speaking forcefully because of how important it was to be believed. ‘If you want a child—’

Piotr shook his head.

‘I know,’ he said.

And she had considered it. Of course she had, they both had – there were options. It might have been too late for her to have a child the way she wanted, but it wasn’t too late. She’d tried to imagine it, closed her eyes and tried to picture herself with a pouch, but it still felt wrong to her. Deeply so. She didn’t know what it was, or where it came from, this desire to have children, but she knew it was to do with creating, or recreating, family. And she had a family. Her mother had saved her once, and her grandmother had saved her too. The care home where she’d spent the first three years of her life was somewhere she’d be spending a lot more time from now on. Looking at the photo she’d placed on her desk, she knew she was ready.

Eva sat down on her chair, and took a deep breath. And then it began.

‘Are used pouches less safe?’

‘How many babies—’

‘—risks of natural birth—’

‘Where is the financing—’

‘—support new hosp—’

‘—lawsuits—’

‘But the dangers are—’

‘—appoint to the board?’

‘One thing at a time,’ she said, raising her voice to make herself heard above the commotion. ‘I will listen to everyone, one at a time.’