Her labour had been long and intense. Everything had been fine and then the baby had gone into distress. A rush of po-faced medical staff into the room had alerted Jia and Elyas to the gravity of the situation. She’d been taken to surgery. Shortly after, the cry of a newborn signalled everything was going to be fine.

Elyas had been by her side the whole time. He’d looked tired and she’d sent him home a few hours ago. The baby had gone down, but sleep wouldn’t come to her. Her mind was exhausted, discombobulated, and her body broken. She made a note to speak to the doctor in the morning.

She looked up to see her brother at the door to her hospital room. He was holding a teddy of the kind only people without children would buy, and in his other hand was a flat brown box. She felt a rush of love and calm descend.

‘From Tarantino’s.’ He held up the box. ‘I’ll see that baby and raise you cold pizza,’ he said. ‘Breakfast of champions.’ He took the baby in his arms and placed it gently in the cot.

‘You OK?’ he said. She nodded, overcome by his presence and by all the things they had been through together. This was family. Here was someone who knew her beneath the armour, before the world took hold of her.

They sat in comfortable silence, Jia eating slice after slice. ‘Elyas doesn’t have a clue about food,’ she said.

‘What can you expect from a man who has oat milk in his chai?’ he replied, and she laughed. They hadn’t laughed together in years. He looked relaxed, fresh-faced and golden. He seemed easy in a way that she hadn’t seen since her return to the city. She felt herself relax and sleep came. When she awoke he was still there, sitting beside her, watching her, his face covered in brotherly love.

‘You snore just like Dad,’ he said, teasing her. ‘Must be the nose…’ He paused. ‘You know, for years I wished you’d died instead of Zan.’

‘I know,’ she said. ‘Me too.’

‘That baby looks like me.’

‘Yes,’ she replied. ‘You were a beautiful baby. So much hair, and huge eyes.’

‘I feel sorry for this little one…’ He looked down into the cot, at the baby wrapped tight in blankets, unaware of the world unfolding around it. ‘And I worry about you.’

His soul chose that moment to crack wide open and everything inside him poured out on to the hospital floor. Maybe it was because he finally felt strong again, maybe it was because Jia appeared weak, or maybe this was just how love for family was, messy and unconditional, made of ties that even knives could never sever.