Two months earlier

Laura stood in the doorway to the kitchen and watched her husband, Nate, carefully stirring a wooden spoon around a pan that was balanced precariously on the edge of the hob. In his other arm, nestled into his side, was Bobby. Her son’s little head lolled against his dad’s shoulder and every time Nate moved, Bobby sprang up as if he’d been jolted wide awake.

Laura tensed as she waited for her son’s eyes to open. He was fast asleep and while Nate hummed quietly, seemingly oblivious to her standing watching, she felt her eyes moisten.

‘I’m off, then.’ The words left her lips almost silently, but Nate turned immediately and broke into a smile.

‘Hey, gorgeous, you look amazing. And see: it still fits perfectly.’

‘Not really.’ She ran her hands down the front of her shirt. The buttons tugged over her breasts so much so that she’d worn a vest top underneath, even though the offices were always too hot.

Laura had spent more time in front of the mirror in the last hour than she had in the last six months. Her dark hair had been pulled into a ponytail, then let loose, and was now tied in a straggly bun at the base of her neck. She’d chipped flakes of dry mascara off its wand before applying it to her lashes and had added more grey eyeshadow than she’d ever worn to work previously, all in an attempt to feel more confident. And yet she still didn’t know how she’d make it out of the front door.

‘You’re nervous,’ Nate said. ‘You’re bound to be, going back after all this time.’

She shook her head and attempted a smile, biting her lip as she strode over to where he had switched off the hob. ‘I’m going to miss you, little man,’ she whispered into her son’s warm hair, kissing his head, her lips lingering, too afraid to pull away.

She shouldn’t be nervous. She loved her job. Morris & Wood had been her life until Bobby had come along. And yet Laura thought there was every chance she was going to be sick. That it would be a whole lot easier if she called Harry and postponed her return. Just for another week. One more week and then surely she would feel better.

But they had done the maths, and now that her full maternity pay had ended, they were reliant on Laura’s salary to pay for the mortgage they’d excitedly stretched themselves to afford five years ago, when she started working for Harry Wood. They both knew that when Bobby came along, it was Laura who’d return to work full-time because, even putting aside the fact that she out-earned her husband by a significant amount, it was Laura who had the career, who had never been able to imagine life without her job.