Disgusted, she switched her phone off and put it away, knowing if it was switched on she wouldn’t be able to resist taking another a look a few minutes later. The prospect of spending the afternoon with Simon and Bella wasn’t doing anything to improve her mood. Several times this morning she’d thought about cancelling. Twice, she’d actually taken her phone out and started typing a text to tell Bella she couldn’t make it. Both times, she’d deleted the text before sending it. Cancelling wouldn’t help. Sooner or later, she’d have to do this. She might as well get it over and done with.

Bella was waiting for Clodagh as she came through the ticket barrier at Brighton train station.

‘Clodagh! Over here.’

As the two women embraced, Clodagh swallowed down the complex feelings that came every time she was with Bella.

‘My car’s this way,’ Bella said, leading Clodagh out of the station to a silver Vauxhall that had seen better days.

‘Sorry about the car,’ she said, opening the door and motioning for Clodagh to jump in. ‘It’s a bit of a mess. We’d like to afford something better, but you know how things are for us.’

Clodagh didn’t say anything, looking out of the car window at the hustle and bustle of Brighton seafront. She wondered how many of those people were aware that every single decision they made this afternoon – which restaurant to eat in, whether to stop off for a drink on the way home, what part of the beach to sit on – had the potential to change the course of their lives forever.

‘I’ve tried so hard to focus on the positives in my life,’ Bella said. ‘But there are times when I can’t help wishing Gary and I never got divorced.’

This was a topic Bella came back to again and again. Because her marriage to Gary was officially over when the plane crashed, it meant she hadn’t been entitled to any of the compensation money paid out to the survivors and the victims’ families.

‘I’m sure I’d feel the same,’ Clodagh said.

‘Exactly!’ Bella smiled. ‘You’re the only person I can say this stuff to, you know. Anyone else would think I’m being mercenary. But you’ve always really got it. And I’m so grateful to you for that. How are you doing, anyway? I never even asked how you were yesterday. I was so caught up worrying about Simon.’

‘I’m fine,’ Clodagh said. ‘It was horrible. But I know it’s so much worse for Simon and his poor parents.’

‘It’s destroyed them,’ Bella said. ‘I don’t think they’ll ever come back from this. They’ve already been through so much, almost losing Nick after the crash. For this to happen now, at their time of life, it doesn’t seem fair.’