‘Anna, after yesterday, I can’t let you try this again.’

‘I’m fine. It was a shock coming back without hearing you count down but I’m okay. The headaches aren’t getting any worse.’ They are but I’m not going to tell him.

‘I don’t believe you. You keep holding your head. Something is wrong.’

‘Other than my husband only having a 3 per cent chance of survival?’ I struggle to gain my composure. ‘Look. This means so much to me, Oliver. More than you know.’ Adam and I can have the relationship I always wanted, a three, not a two. Open and honest. Sharing our feelings. I won’t back down. ‘You owe me. If I hadn’t come here, you’d still be congratulating yourself for having designed something on paper that you had no idea would work in the real world.’

‘It’s a bit more technical than that—’

‘I don’t care about the technicalities. The design process. All of your facts and figures. I care about my husband.’ I lower my voice. ‘I need to be with him.’

‘I… I’m not sure you are actually with him.’ Oliver pushes his glasses up once more. ‘What you’re seeing, describing is…’ He rubs at his beard while I wait, wishing he’d hurry up. Wanting to shake the words out of him. ‘It’s possible that it’s not… not Adam’s consciousness but your own projections. The things—’

‘Everything I have told you is true.’

‘But I haven’t been able to see them for myself.’

‘I know that.’ He’s not telling me anything new. ‘That’s why I remember everything and tell you everything.’ My hands stray to my stomach. ‘I’ve held nothing back.’

‘Anna, the thing is, without being able to record where the images you describe are coming from, there’s no guarantee they are from Adam. You share the same life, you want the same things.’ Oliver studies me while I process this. ‘The only way to tell if it’s working is for somebody else—’

‘Absolutely not.’ I shake my head furiously. ‘No one else is delving around inside my husband’s mind. The things I’m seeing, feeling, they’re Adam’s thoughts. I know they are.’

Oliver leans back. Nudges his glasses, which are slipping down his nose again. I want to rip them off his worried face and smash them. I take a breath. Force myself to calm down.

‘It is working.’ I am fighting back tears. ‘I won’t give you permission to connect to him yet.’

‘Anna…’

‘If you want to carry on, you’ll have to use me again.’ I know he doesn’t want to give up. ‘It’s not like you have anyone else if I take Adam away, is it?’