‘It was awful, Con. Polly just ran off and hid underneath her bed crying. Evie marched out of the house slamming the door.’

‘They’ll be all right, kids are resilient,’ I said. Sometimes we all need a platitude to keep us going. You could do with using a few more of them, Dr. R. If you’re not careful, you can come over a touch frosty.

‘I’m going to be that single person that no one invites to dinner parties . . .’ Ness said.

I squeezed her toes. ‘No, you won’t.’

‘Promise you’ll invite me.’

‘Of course I will. You can come and eat round here every night, my love.’

‘I don’t want to be on my own.’ She was so broken, so full of pain. It was alarming but, I must admit, fascinating to see such rawness.

‘You won’t be on your own, I promise.’ I got on my knees at the edge of the bath and wanted to cry myself.

The whole thing was so profoundly sad. Karl and I lay in bed that night, pretending to read, both of us staring at the ceiling, silent, in our own worlds, the repercussions beginning to sink in; little waves kept hitting me. My own foundations had been shaken. It’s selfish, I know, Dr. R, but I was gutted for our family. The eight of us were such a safe unit. We had become inseparable, we lived in each other’s houses, we’d holidayed together for the last five years – in fact we preferred to holiday together. Over time we had merged and the eight of us got on better than in our separate fours. Leah and Karl would go off for hours to play golf or tennis while Ness and I went for long coastal walks or lounged around reading. And so the big question was: what were we without them? I wasn’t sure. We would be left alone to face the reality of our own relationships.

There was something else going on in my head too: I felt slightly envious of their freedom. Leah had broken the chains; she was free of all the cosy conventions of our comfortable little community. She wasn’t in love with Ness, so she had left. She had taken a gamble. My mother was right: she had guts.

Karl and I should have lain there in the increasing darkness holding each other tight saying we’ll never lose each other, we’ll never break, but we didn’t; we bobbed about individually on our ocean of a bed. Perhaps I should have seen it all coming then.

‘We have to look after her, Karl. I’m worried about her.’