Adam started to say something, but she didn’t wait around to hear it. Outside, it had stopped raining and the sun had come out. Tiny drops of rain hung from the leaves and branches of the trees that lined the driveway, twinkling and glistening in the sunlight. At the gates, she checked the road for any journalists that might still be lurking near the entrance. She hadn’t seen any in a few days but knew better than to assume they’d gone for good. When she was sure there was no one around, Clodagh pulled out her phone, switched it on and called a taxi. There was only one place in the world she wanted to be right now, and it wasn’t here with Adam.

An hour later, she was sitting at the table in Ivan’s small kitchen while he bustled around, putting biscuits onto a plate that he placed in front of her alongside a mug of milky tea.

‘Sugar and tea are good for shock,’ he said. ‘I don’t know what’s happened but you’re very pale. Like you’ve seen a ghost. So, you drink your tea and eat some chocolate biscuits. After that, if you want to tell Uncle Ivan what’s going on you can tell me. If you don’t want to say anything, that’s fine too. It’s up to you.’

‘I’ve left Adam.’

The whole way over here, she’d wondered if she’d made a mistake. Now, saying the words out loud, she knew she’d done the right thing. She took a sip of her tea, strong and sweet and just what she needed.

‘So what happens now?’

‘I don’t know.’ Clodagh smiled. ‘But I’ll work it out. I’ve been putting off making a decision. Now I have, it feels liberating. These last few weeks, there have been times I’ve felt frightened of him. I don’t want to be with a man who makes me feel like that.’

‘Does he know about the baby?’

‘Not yet.’ Clodagh reached for one of the biscuits. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d eaten and suddenly felt ravenous. ‘I’ll tell him when he’s calmed down a bit.’

‘He’s not calm about you leaving?’

‘I don’t think so.’

‘I didn’t know you’d been feeling scared,’ Ivan said. ‘Why didn’t you say something?’

‘Because I kept thinking it would pass or I was overreacting.’

‘Well it sounds to me as if you’ve done the right thing. No one should ever make you feel like that. And you have your faults, lady, but being a drama queen is not one of them. If you were scared, then there is a good reason for that.’

‘Thanks, Ivan. I feel relieved, more than anything, that I had the guts to walk away. I thought it would be harder than this.’