Still, it had been a shock to see Angie so vulnerable, so unsure of herself. It was a side of her that Sophie hadn’t seen before and she had immediately gone into mother-hen mode, taking control of the situation and clucking over her like she did with her own children. Under normal circumstances, Angie probably would have got irritated with her but she’d actually seemed relieved that Sophie was ordering her about. It had all been quite strange.

And after all the drama, the test had been negative anyway. Sophie was relieved for Angie but the whole experience had left her feeling low. Her own period had arrived that day with a vengeance, bringing with it the monthly wave of disappointment and feelings of failure. She wanted to curl up on the sofa and feel sorry for herself. What was she any good at, really, she wondered. She had no career to speak of; she couldn’t make babies. Was she even a good mother? Tom and Katie were happy children, she knew that, but she looked at Angie’s big, bustling, unique family and felt that there was something wonderfully special about them.

Perhaps that was why she’d got a bee in her bonnet about having a third child. When she had first broached the idea with Alan, he’d looked at her in surprise.

‘Another Brennan baby, huh? What’s brought this on?’

‘I don’t know. The kids are growing up so fast, both of them are at school now, they don’t need me in the way they used to. Maybe it’s empty nest syndrome but I’m feeling broody.’

‘Another baby is a big thing though, Soph. We’ve finally said goodbye to years of sleepless nights, nappies, toddler tantrums. Do we really want to go back to the beginning and start all over again? And we’re no spring chickens anymore either. I’m not saying no, I’m just saying let’s not rush into anything, we should think about it for a while.’

She agreed but the idea had lingered, a feeling of need – or at least want – that she couldn’t shake off and a few weeks later she brought it up again.

‘I know it might not happen for us, Alan. It wasn’t plain sailing getting pregnant with Tom and Katie, but can we give it a go? Just let fate take its course?’

Alan had agreed, as she knew he would, but fate seemed to have decided that another baby wasn’t in their future after all. And with two happy, healthy children she wasn’t prepared to put them through the emotional and financial turmoil of fertility treatment. She simply had to accept that it wasn’t meant to be, that she had so much in her life already to be thankful for, and most of the time she was okay with that. But today had hit her hard.

It’s just a blip, she told herself, a perfectly natural reaction to Angie’s situation, and I’ll get over it soon enough. Alan would be back with the kids any minute now and perhaps they could all go out for lunch together, or maybe get last-minute tickets to the cinema. There was a new Disney film out that Katie had been wanting to see. Once she was distracted, she’d be absolutely fine again. But just for a little while longer, she sat alone on the sofa, drinking her tea, and allowed herself to imagine what could have been.