Is this The Moment? she thinks. Has it come?

Honor always told her that in every life there is The Moment. It might be very small, like holding out a hand to stop a child stepping over a pavement, or very big, like giving the go-ahead for a doctor to flick the switch on a life-support machine. It may be saying yes or saying no. It might be as simple as making or taking a phone call. The Moment can steal up on you and arrive in the most unexpected minute of the most unexpected hour. It may hit hard or be so soft-footed that you may not hear it coming. Your life can be defined by it. It can be your making or your ruin.

Satnam is on the Clifton Suspension Bridge with Sondra. Satnam is… oh it’s too horrible to think about but Nevis must steel herself. Satnam is in deep, deep trouble. This is my Moment, she thinks. This is my time. Whatever decisions she makes, whatever action she takes now will be etched on her soul. She cannot escape this; she can only move towards it.

Nevis’s hand is trembling so hard now that she can hardly hold the phone. ‘Let me speak to her.’ She can feel her adolescence receding. So distant now. Adulthood coming at her like a rocket.

‘She won’t let me approach. Please just come,’ Sondra says.

Nevis thinks. Can I do this? Do I have a choice? She takes a deep breath. You always have a choice, Nevis. The right thing or the easy thing. Step up. Stop asking questions. Control yourself. Take a breath and quiet your heart. This is The Moment.

‘Tell Satnam I will be there in fifteen minutes.’ Her voice sounds weirdly distant, Nevis thinks, as if it belongs to someone else. She grabs her phone to summon an Uber and throws on clothes. A different person from moments ago. A crisis will do that. In seconds she’s rushing down the stairs and into the street, one eye on her screen to follow the progress of the taxi, willing the driver to go faster. Farok in the black Prius, come on. Three minutes, two, one. The longest one hundred and eighty seconds in history. There’s a moment, maybe a second or two, when she loses heart and thinks, how can I do this? But how can she not? Satnam is her best friend, her only friend. Nevis owes her this.

The Prius has barely come to a stop at the side of the pavement before Nevis is throwing open the door and hurling her body inside. Farok whips his head round, meets the expression on her face with a look of alarm.

‘Nevis, Clifton Bridge?’

‘Yes. It’s not what you think. Or it is what you think, but it’s not me, it’s my friend.’