Tully nodded. ‘Yes. For me and Miles both.’

Sonny placed his tea on the floor beside him. ‘I wish I’d known how much you’ve been hurting, Tully. I knew you were upset about your mum. And I assumed you weren’t coping too well with your dad remarrying. But you never talked about it, and I was so busy with trying to sort out our financial situation . . . And I can’t even begin to think about the kleptomania. To know that you’ve been doing this for as long as I’ve known you and I didn’t notice . . .’

‘I didn’t let you notice.’

‘Why didn’t you?’ Sonny asked. ‘You used to be honest with me once, didn’t you? At the beginning of our marriage, I loved how vulnerable you were with me. Remember that time you split your pants at the theatre but you still wanted to go to drinks afterwards so I spent the whole night standing right behind you so no one would see your bottom?’

‘You were very unreliable,’ Tully said. ‘Every two seconds I felt a breeze and turned around and you were gone.’

‘And remember right after we were married when you dyed your own hair and it turned orange?’

‘There was nothing funny about that,’ Tully said, appalled. ‘I had to wait two weeks for an appointment to get it fixed!’

‘And during that time, whenever you left the house you wore a woollen hat with all your hair tucked underneath it, which made you look like a homeless bald lunatic! But you insisted it was better than orange hair.’

‘The hat was a fashion statement,’ Tully muttered.

‘One of the things I love about you is how kooky you are. Or at least you used to be. But I’ve seen it less and less. Since we had the boys, it’s been all routines and schedules. You seemed like you had everything under control – always talking about your “game face” and “no chinks in the armour”. But I guess I missed the fact that you didn’t have it all under control. You’ve been handling all this stuff by yourself. No wonder you needed to find ways to cope.’

‘Thank you for saying that,’ Tully said. ‘It means a lot.’

For a moment they were silent.

‘Look at us, sitting here on the floor!’ Sonny said, with a sad laugh.

‘I kind of like it,’ Tully said. ‘It reminds me of when we were starting out and we didn’t have so much to lose.’

‘I guess we’ve come full circle,’ Sonny said.

Tully shook her head. ‘Actually, now I have everything to lose. You. The boys.’

‘You’re not going to lose us,’ Sonny said.

‘I always thought I came from this ideal family. Mum and Dad and Rachel, I mean. I prided myself on it. Now I can’t think of a more dysfunctional one.’

‘There can be pride in dysfunction, Tully,’ Sonny said. ‘If anyone can find pride in dysfunction, it’s you.’