Laura had laughed, softly. ‘I can’t believe you’re saying that, after everything. Now you’re suggesting I carry on? I’d have thought you’d be pleased I don’t want to.’

‘I’m not pleased about anything, if you’re not happy,’ he said. ‘You know I never wanted you to give up your career.’

‘No,’ she said quietly. ‘I do know that.’

‘I think you need to listen to what Patrick is suggesting and, between us, we’ll see if we can make it work. You can work from home – do your hours around caring for Bobby – and then I can start working part-time again.’

Laura had squeezed her husband’s hands in response, tears pricking the corners of her eyes. She didn’t deserve Nate. Not one bit; and yet here he was, springing back into the loyal husband he had always been.

In the days afterwards, they had talked about many things. Laura listened to how he really felt about the hours she’d been working, and in return she told Nate how she’d been feeling about Mia, and what it had done to her confidence.

But Mia was out of the picture now, as Nate pointed out to her. Mia was currently in the remand wing of prison, awaiting trial. And Harry wasn’t fit to run his company at the moment. At the time of Patrick’s first call to Laura, Harry was still in hospital; and maybe, Nate had said to her, maybe she could make a freelance career work.

Laura had mulled over the idea for a few days, before finally picking up the phone to Patrick and listening properly to what he was proposing. There were going to be some tough months ahead, in the wake of the fire – Mia’s upcoming trial, decisions to be made as to what was going to happen to Morris & Wood.

Patrick had admitted he needed Laura, in a moment of surprising honesty, and her heart had beat a little faster at the thought, as she let him tell her how he couldn’t make it work without her. ‘I’ve talked it through with Harry, and he’s happy,’ he had said. ‘In fact he wants you there. I think you should do it for him.’ Although those were the words that could have swung Laura the other way.

Harry. She hadn’t been able to sift through her feelings for the man she had trusted as her boss. Laura had always looked up to him, had never imagined he wasn’t anything but on her side, and yet he had let her down. But then the guilt of what had happened to Harry would creep in, until some days it overwhelmed her.