His head jerked up at her barbs. ‘Well, how do you think I feel, Nina? He was the closest thing I ever had to a true friend, and I woke up to find he’s got with my wife and taken my family as his own! I thought he was different; I thought he didn’t care about who we were and what we had; but he’s just like all the rest, trying to get a slice of the pie. He might not be able to get the penthouse or the boat, but my wife? My sad, frightened wife, told by the doctors she’s a half-widow? He wasted no time moving in, did he?’ His eyes glowed like night flares. ‘So don’t ask me how I feel about seeing him, or tell me he’s my brother. I owe him nothing. He took the best things in my life and made them his own. And now, when I take them back, it’ll be his life that’s destroyed. What’s coming, he knew would someday come. He’s always known it.’

Bell kept her eyes on the jetty, feeling her pulse quicken as they drew ever closer over the water. Bunting, strung along the handrails, was flapping noisily, and bunches of brightly coloured balloons bobbed manically from the trees, announcing a celebration to the rest of the lagoon. The weather was forecast to change, a spell of low pressure moving in from Finland, and gusty winds were already whipping and skimming over the lagoon, the water a desolate grey. The tideline was higher up the beach than she recalled, too, almost to the grass.

Tilde was sitting to her right, Elise to her left, their little bodies awkward in the lifejackets. Max was driving the boat and Hanna was up towards the front, ready to jump off and secure the lines as they docked. There was a strange, proprioceptive mood on board, and even the girls were sitting quietly (for once) and peering up at the adults with enquiring expressions.

They could already see Linus waving to them. Long before he was visible, they could see the white flag in his hand, the one he waved at night to Hanna across the water, a silent communication between mother and son. It was ragged and faded with time. She remembered what Max had told her about their boyhood jaunts on the water, and how their parents had gathered them home with exactly that system. It was intended as a welcome, but today it looked just as much like a warning.

She saw Max see it too and stiffen, his movements thrusting and abrupt as he manoeuvred the boat towards the shore, no hint of his usual relaxed manner.

‘Did you see me?’ Linus yelled, as the boat nudged against the dock and he grabbed the ropes with the instincts of someone raised on the water.

They all jumped off, the girls running to him for hugs. He submitted, but with a look of almost comical distaste.

‘You look funny!’ Elise exclaimed. ‘What are they?’ She pointed to his trainers – box fresh with chunky soles, and red and black detailing on them.