Louisa sat feeding Noah in the chair in his nursery rather than downstairs watching television. She wanted the quiet – after the restless night, her head ached. Noah sucked hard at the teat, and before she realised, he’d drained the bottle. Great. That would mean a good hour of her trying to bash the wind out of him. She should’ve taken more notice, but her mind had drifted to Brian’s drunken words. Oliver was right about you. In the cold light of day, Louisa didn’t know which of them to be more angry with. She’d be having words with Brian when he surfaced; there was no way she was allowing him to socialise with Oliver again.

A gentle tapping on the nursery door disturbed her thoughts, and a moment later, Emily walked in and plonked herself on the floor in front of Louisa.

‘You’re up early again. And it’s a Saturday. Everything okay?’ Louisa gave her daughter, who was sitting cross-legged in her pyjamas, a concerned look.

Emily wrinkled her nose and shrugged. ‘Can’t sleep.’

‘Sorry Noah is waking you. I’m hoping he’ll settle into a better routine—’

‘It’s not Noah, Mum,’ she cut in.

Louisa frowned. If it wasn’t the baby, then what was bothering her teenager? There could be all manner of things, and in an instant, Louisa’s mind had conjured some worst-case scenarios: she was taking drugs, she was pregnant, she’d been shoplifting.

‘Oh, okay. Well, do you want to talk about what’s on your mind?’

Emily lowered her head and began picking at the carpet pile. Louisa waited.

‘You never told me about Oliver,’ she said finally.

Louisa gave an internal sigh of relief, thankful it wasn’t as serious as her imagined scenarios. If that was all that was worrying Emily, she could handle it. ‘Well, there was never any reason to, really. I’d had a few boyfriends before your dad, as he had girlfriends before me. It’s not usually something that ever gets discussed once you’re married with children.’

Emily nodded gently, but then looked up – her eyes bright, her cheeks flushing. ‘But Oliver said you and he would’ve got married if it hadn’t been for something you did that meant he had to go away, and then you went and chose Dad.’ Emily’s words rushed out, as though she’d been holding them in her mouth for too long and the pressure of them had built to the point they were forced to burst out.

Shit. Why would Oliver have told her that pack of lies?

‘Emily. That’s not true. When did Oliver tell you that?’

‘Yesterday. When he saw me walking the pram and joined me.’

‘Yes, about that. Why did you take Noah and where did Oliver see you?’