‘Well, do you want them?’ I sit forward, raising my shoulders out of the water. I resist the urge to hiss in a breath as the cold night air hits my skin. ‘I’m not asking about Caro, or anything, I’m just asking if one day in the future you want to have kids.’ I let out a small laugh, a tiny shrug. ‘We are married, we should probably talk about it at some point, so why not now?’ I am feeling much more like my old self, like the old Emily, thanks to this weekend. The old Emily would never have hesitated to ask Rupert what he wanted.

‘I think I would always have the concern that something might go wrong, if we were to get pregnant, after what happened with Caro,’ Rupert says finally, ‘even though I know you and Caro are not the same.’

Em isn’t Caro, and she never will be. I splash water over my face as the words float through my mind, holding my hot palms over my eyes.

‘But I wouldn’t say never,’ Rupert says, sitting up. ‘One day it would be nice to have a family. For there to be three of us, instead of two.’

‘That’s all I’ve ever wanted,’ I say quietly, and I let him untie my bikini top, and we don’t leave the hot tub until much, much later.

Rupert is relieved that Emily seems to have forgiven him for being economical with the truth. He didn’t lie to her, he would never do that, but he admits that he didn’t quite tell her the whole truth about what happened with Caro. And now thanks to Sadie, Emily knows more than he wanted her to. He glances across at her as she snoozes in the passenger seat next to him. It’s been the perfect weekend – he must remember to thank Will for suggesting it – the only blot on the landscape is Emily’s mention of children. It’s not that he doesn’t ever want them, he didn’t lie about that, it’s just that every time he thinks about babies, he thinks of his child that never was. He hadn’t handled things very well when Caro had told him they were going to have a baby.

‘Aren’t you pleased?’ Caro is perched on the edge of the expensive sofa, the only comfortable seat in the house, the pregnancy test in her hand. The other hand lays protectively against her still flat stomach.