‘Let’s go and raise a glass to your mother. Please.’

‘OK,’ she acquiesced; it didn’t feel right to just slip back into real life immediately. She would have a gin, then go home and watch black-and-white movies, maybe some Fred and Ginger.

In the pub, the news was running, the same scaremongering, hate-fuelled drama that she had stopped watching years ago. It was no good for her anxiety.

‘It was peaceful when she died,’ Elias offered. ‘She didn’t even feel the aneurism; it took her in her sleep. When I woke up, she was just gone.’

‘That must have been awful for you. I still can’t believe it,’ Imogen said, both upset and relieved that she hadn’t been with her mother at the end.

‘No. It doesn’t feel real. I only just got her back.’

‘I’m sorry,’ Imogen said. She was genuinely sorry that they had spent all those years apart. Arranged marriages seemed so archaic and she just couldn’t get her head around the fact that he hadn’t fought for her and her mother, that he had chosen someone else.

‘Do you believe in fate?’

‘I try not to think about it. I don’t know what I think about things like that. I barely believe in coincidences though.’

‘I think maybe your mother and I weren’t meant to be. The obstacles were too many for it to be an accident.’

‘I’m not sure where you’re going with this.’

‘I think that me and her were never about us. I think we were brought together so that you could exist. I think you are the reason we fell for each other. You are special, important in some way.’

‘Isn’t everyone?’ Imogen said, brushing off the compliment. Is this how he let himself off the hook for not being around?

‘Maybe, yes. Your mother loved you very much, even though I know you struggled together, but because of your struggle you are a remarkable person.’

‘Is that what you tell yourself? That me growing up without a father is fine because it was character-building?’

‘I’m sorry to make light of it. I am sorry I missed all those years with you.’

‘I’m not. We did OK,’ Imogen said more defensively than she intended.

‘We can talk about the past if you want to. We can talk about why I wasn’t around.’

‘I know – you had to marry a good Greek girl and my mother wasn’t one.’

‘That’s true. I did have to marry someone I didn’t want to,’ Elias said, a hint of exasperation in his voice.

‘So why did you?’

‘Arranged marriage is a complicated thing that seems quite alien to people from other cultures. We were in financial trouble and my father had promised. I couldn’t dishonour him and so I married into the family.’

‘So, your money isn’t yours, it’s your wife’s?’

‘No, I worked hard and made sure not to repeat my father’s mistakes; my money is my own. Kiki has taken her half and we are now in the process of getting a divorce.’