The urge to join her boys and announce her arrival at home was superseded by a strange anxiety, which she couldn’t put down solely to the work she knew was waiting for her. That hovered on the periphery of her mind like a black cloud that wouldn’t go away until she attended to it, but this was something so much more.

It was that Laura didn’t know any more where her place was with her boys. She didn’t know where she fitted in.

She could count on both hands the waking hours she’d spent with Bobby in a working week. The once-bright smile that had lit up his face when she’d walked in the door at night had been replaced by a new hesitation before he would come to her.

Laura knew this was of her own making, and that she had no one else to blame but herself. And although she longed to drag herself out of the hole she had dug, she didn’t see a way to.

Not yet anyway. Not until she got rid of Mia. Then she would make it work. Then she would find the balance she needed to reconnect with her family, she thought resolutely, her hand pressing harder against the pane.

Nate turned round at the bottom of the garden and gave Laura a surprised wave when he caught her standing at the window. She released her hand as he pointed and whispered more words into Bobby’s ear, but their son was more intent on pulling the collar of Nate’s polo shirt to his mouth.

‘I didn’t know you were back,’ he said, coming into the kitchen. ‘How long have you been standing there?’

‘Just long enough to watch you giving our son a gardening lesson.’ Laura smiled, holding out her hands for Nate to pass her a wriggling Bobby.

‘He’s hungry. I was about to come in to get his tea.’

‘I can do that,’ she told him, pressing her mouth against Bobby’s cheek and blowing a raspberry against his soft skin until he giggled.

‘No, it’s all right, I’ve got it ready.’ Nate was already at the fridge, pulling out a container of yesterday’s shepherd’s pie that he would whizz up in a blender.