Watching Josh slope towards the stairs, his scrawny shoulders drooping, Jason’s heart sank. The kid’s body language said it all. His son was worrying himself sick. Holly, too. Unsurprisingly. You could cut the atmosphere around here with a knife.

‘I’ll bring your drink up, Josh,’ he called after him. ‘Don’t forget to—’

‘Brush my teeth after I’ve drunk it. I know,’ Josh threw moodily behind him.

Jason drew a hand over his neck. He was entitled to that. Jason couldn’t help but wonder how the kids were holding it together either. He was grateful they were. ‘I was going to say, don’t forget you have your after-school coding club tomorrow,’ he said. ‘You’ll need to make sure you have your notebook.’

‘I’m not going. Don’t fancy it,’ Josh called back – and closed his bedroom door.

Right. Jason swallowed a tight knot in his throat. He wouldn’t, he supposed, not now his father had shown him that running his own software company was a fast road to failure.

He really had lived up to Fenton’s prophecies, hadn’t he? He’d messed up his family’s lives spectacularly. Where was Karla? What was she doing? Suppressing a combination of anger and fear, he took a breath and turned to Holly, who was loitering uncertainly in the hall. She would normally have dodged into the lounge and put the TV on – her usual ploy to postpone bedtime.

‘Hot chocolate?’ he asked her, with a hopeful shrug.

Holly didn’t appear too enthusiastic but answered with a small nod, possibly to placate him. If there was one thing Jason had realised since his world started falling apart, it was that his kids were smarter than he’d given them credit for.

‘I’ll put the kettle on and bring yours up, too.’ He attempted a reassuring smile.

Holly didn’t look very reassured. ‘Dad, where’s Mummy?’ she said, stopping him in his tracks as he took a step towards the kitchen.

Jason swallowed hard. That she’d referred to Karla as Mummy, rather than Mum, told him how scared his little girl was – and that almost tore his heart from his chest.

‘Out with friends,’ Jason answered, his voice catching. ‘Work colleagues,’ he quickly amended, hoping that might help to justify why she seemed to be out almost permanently. ‘I expect she’ll be home soon.’

Holly nodded again, her gaze dropping to her trainers, her expression ‘not buying it’. ‘When she does come home’ – she looked up, fixing him with huge blue eyes that were so like her mother’s, and so full of confusion, that Jason felt his heart crack another fraction inside him – ‘could you tell her we’re her friends, too?’

Stunned, Jason tried to answer, but the words got stuck in his throat.