‘Before you were born, when Emily was still a baby,’ Oliver said, ‘I had an affair with one of my students.’ He paused and his eyes met Clara’s until, embarrassed, she looked away. ‘I was a stupid, weak fool, and I have no excuse, I have no defence. I know now that it was the very worst mistake of my life and I have regretted it every single day since.’

He turned to Tom. ‘I don’t deserve forgiveness, but I want, at least, to try and explain.’ There was a pause, the silence broken only by the sound of Rose crying. ‘Her name was Nadia, she was a student of mine. We became close, and I suppose I was too infatuated, too flattered, to realize how troubled, how … unstable she was. It wasn’t until later that I learned quite how unstable.’

Clara stared at him in horrified fascination. This brilliant man, this loving father and devoted husband, whom she had admired, loved, from the first moment they had met, was a cheat? Had betrayed his wife and child for the sake of a vulnerable woman far younger than himself? Something hard and bitter lodged in her throat as she listened to him speak. For the first time since she’d met him she suddenly saw Oliver very differently. Her gaze turned to Tom and she saw that he was very still, his eyes fastened on his father’s face.

‘Your mother was completely blameless,’ Oliver went on. ‘Emily was only a baby, it was an unforgivable betrayal for which I was entirely responsible. When I came to my senses and ended things between Nadia and me …’ he paused, and swallowed, glancing at each of their faces, ‘I didn’t know that she had already fallen pregnant with my child.’

Rose’s head whipped round at this. ‘Don’t, Oliver,’ she cried. ‘You promised me!’

Oliver’s voice was tender: ‘Rose, don’t you see? There’s nothing we can do now. She’s won. Hannah’s won.’

At this, Tom’s head shot up. ‘What the fuck are you talking about, Dad?’ he said. ‘What do you mean “she’s won”?’

Oliver flinched at his anger. ‘When Hannah was a baby, she was adopted by a woman named Beth Jennings and her husband. She grew up believing they were her natural parents, but then, when she was seven, she found out the truth.’

‘That you were her real father,’ Tom said coldly.

‘That, and what happened to Nadia, to her mother.’

Tom shook his head in frustration. ‘Well, what did happen to her?’

Oliver glanced at Rose, something passing between them, fraught with pain. Rose cleared her throat and said, ‘She died. Nadia died. It was all my fault.’

Clara shot Mac a look of stunned disbelief. ‘What do you mean?’ she asked.