‘I know that too.’

‘I’m not sure I can get my head around it all. What it means for you. What it means for us.’

‘It doesn’t have to mean anything, Dad.’

He looked at her sadly. ‘Oh it does, Katie. It does.’

After he had left the room, on the pretence that he had some invoicing to finish, her mum went to the kitchen to get a couple of glasses of wine and handed one to Katie.

‘I’m so sorry, Mum,’ Katie was on the verge of crying now as she realised, probably for the first time, the hurt that her relationship might be causing her mother.

‘You don’t need to be sorry. You’ve done nothing wrong.’

‘Except fall in love with public enemy number one.’

‘Well yes, except that.’

‘I did try to stay away from him at first, I honestly did. But there was just something there, Mum, and I couldn’t get him out of my mind. I never meant to cause any upset.’

‘I know that, love.’

‘What do we do now?’

Sophie looked thoughtful. ‘Leave your dad to me, he’ll come round.’

‘But what about you?’

‘Don’t you worry about me, Katie. Your happiness is all I care about and if Freddy Taylor makes you happy, then that’s the most important thing.’

‘Do you really mean it?’ Katie sagged with relief.

‘Of course I do.’

‘But are you upset, Mum? Have I upset you?’

‘I’m shocked, certainly. I’d be lying if I said it hadn’t brought up some bad memories from the past. And there’s no doubt that it’s going to be a tricky path to navigate, Katie. I mean the usual meet the parents is going to be a bit different for us, isn’t it? But we’ll make it work.’

‘Do you think Dad will ever forgive me?’

Sophie looked at her sadly. ‘It’s not about forgiving you, love; it’s about forgiving himself.’

26

Sophie turned the car engine off and gazed out of the window at the house that had once been hers. It looked like it had been recently repainted and the old front door had been replaced with a contemporary one, blue with stained glass panels and a large chrome knocker. Outside, a 4x4 was parked in the driveway and she could see that their old curtains had been taken down and replaced with white shutters. The house, just like her, had moved on.

Next she looked at the house next door. In contrast, it wasn’t that different to how she remembered it. The SUV had been replaced by something smaller, presumably now all the Taylor children had grown up and moved out, and there were some new flowers in the beds. But other than that, it seemed untouched, the last vestige of a former life.

It was eleven years since Sophie had last been in Pemberton Road and the prospect of returning to her past had haunted her. But this visit wasn’t about the past, it was about the future. It was time to make things right, for the sake of the children. Katie and Freddy were coming up to the end of their first year of university and they were still madly in love. She had never seen her daughter like this before; she had been such a bookworm at school, never particularly interested in boys. At first, she had worried that it might distract her from her studies, that she would waste the opportunity she’d worked so hard for. But in typical Katie style she was still getting top marks in almost everything she did.