As I shut the lid of my laptop, I hear crying in the other room. Léa, screaming in French and wailing in a babyish tone I haven’t heard from her before. I walk into the room to find out what’s going on and see Julia sitting on the sofa with an exasperated expression on her face, her arms around Luca, who sits on her lap. Léa’s leaning over one arm of the sofa, her face red and streaked with tears.

‘What’s going on?’ I say. When Léa sees me, she runs to me and flings her arms around my waist. She says something else in French and I hear my name in there, and though I don’t have a clue what she’s saying, from the stony look on her mother’s face I gather it’s not a compliment about her.

‘I can’t go to Léa’s tennis competition next Saturday, but she doesn’t understand how important work is at the moment,’ Julia says. Her expression tells me she clearly expects me to side with her. ‘Much as I’d love to see her play, I just can’t get away.’

‘But it’s a Saturday.’ It comes out of my mouth like a reflex and Julia frowns, purses her lips.

‘Right now, Saturday is a working day for me. There’s an event at the stadium, all the sponsors will be there and I must be too,’ she says, then to Léa, ‘C’est la vie, chérie. That’s life.’

I feel Léa’s tears dampening my shorts and I stroke her hair, wanting to bundle her into a hug and tell her it’s okay, I have time for her, even if her mother doesn’t. But I don’t say that. I nod at Julia, a brusque recognition of what she’s said, an acknowledgement that she’s my employer and I won’t contradict her, even if I think she’s crazy to put her work ahead of her family. She meets my eyes as her daughter clings to me and I see disapproval in her face – as though I’m the one who’s in the wrong – and I feel fury rise up in me. How dare she be critical of me when I’m the only one of us putting a smile on her kids’ faces these days? How can she be so cavalier with her family, this precious, precious thing, when some people aren’t lucky enough to have one?

‘Come on,’ I say to Léa. ‘I want you to show me what you’ve done in that new drawing pad we picked up last week.’

I take her hand and lead her into her bedroom where she flings herself down on the bed.