‘Don’t be. I’ve got you.’

It’s ages before we’re ready to leave. I’ve changed Harry’s nappy and the second I get him dressed, he fills it again. He’s now wrapped in so many layers he lays stiff in his pram, unable to kick his limbs.

‘A snowsuit is a little extreme?’ Adam says cautiously. ‘No, it’s fine,’ he quickly says when I begin to lift Harry up. ‘Don’t change him. Honestly, Anna, it’s taken you an hour so far and we’re only going to be out for ten minutes.’

‘I just want…’ My voice thins. ‘I just want everything to be perfect.’

‘And it is.’ Adam wraps his arms around me, his chin resting on the top of my head. ‘Now, come on, we can be back by three.’

‘What’s at three… Oh.’ Football, but oddly this doesn’t irritate me. I might even watch the match myself.

Adam pushes the pram into the hall and opens the front door. ‘Right, let’s do this. Little man, meet the world.’ Adam manoeuvres the wheels down the step. ‘It might seem big and scary but it’s pretty awesome. Like your dad actually.’

I roll my eyes and step outside, and that’s when it happens.

The world tilts and blurs and I can feel myself slipping away.

‘Adam!’ I cling on to the door frame and stretch out my arm. Adam rushes back down the path towards me. He takes my hand but I feel his fingers fading from my grasp.

I feel myself fading.

I feel nothing.

Chapter Fifty-Five

Adam

Falling. Twisting. Weightlessness.

Fighting to breathe.

Fighting to move.

Choking.

Choking.

Choking.

Chapter Fifty-Six

Oliver

The siren blares. Oliver half falls out of bed and grabs his glasses. Runs barefoot down the corridor wearing his pyjamas.

Orange flashing lights blink on and off. On and off. The noise builds and builds as he approaches Adam’s room.

‘Quick.’ Sofia beckons him inside. He can’t believe, after everything, they are losing Adam. Anna will be devastated. Oliver has come to deeply care about them both.

He rushes inside. Adam’s bed is empty. Oliver is momentarily confused until he notices light shining through the open door to the scanner room. It’s a sudden sickening realization.

No. Anna. No.

In there, Luis is hunched over the patient table.

Doing what he can.

No.

Oliver draws nearer and sickness thuds deep in his stomach as he realizes it isn’t Adam at all who is in trouble.

It’s Anna.

Chapter Fifty-Seven

Adam

Drifting. Drifting.

Body heavy.

Can’t think straight.

Noise. Whooshing? The waves?

Hissing. The sound of the sea?

Something else?

A siren.

A voice.

Somebody calling Anna’s name.

Chapter Fifty-Eight

Anna