‘It’s been like a pressure building up inside of me. For years I managed to keep it at bay, but it started to eat away at me, started to damage Mario and me. It has damaged Mario and me,’ she corrected. ‘We’re living apart while we try to get our heads straight.’ This single fact still had the power to bring her to tears. ‘Things had to change – I had to change or sink. The secret was pulling me under.’

‘I’m sorry to hear about you and Mario. And how did Mum and Dad . . . ?’ He rubbed his stubbled chin. ‘What did they say?’

Bess looked at her big brother, enjoying the proximity of him. ‘They were wonderful, really wonderful.’

Philip was quiet and she was thankful he didn’t feel the need to fill the air with platitudes. It was as if the realisation was sinking in – the fact that this was no longer a secret. His hands lay limply in his lap, his relief evident, and this she could feel without him saying a word. The air and silence between them was different, lighter and less fraught.

‘I didn’t know what to say to you, Bessie, not from that day to this. We went through so much and I never knew if I’d done the right thing in helping you.’

‘Philip,’ she interrupted, reaching for his hand, ‘thank you for everything you did for me. Your support meant the whole world – you were the only help I had. I can’t imagine what I might have done if you’d not been there. You were incredible.’ Her voice broke away in sobs. ‘I am and always will be so very thankful.’

He put his arms around her and held her close.

‘I think about it a lot, you know. You were braver than anyone I’ve encountered, before or since. Your face on the train journey home . . . You looked so fragile, so empty, I feared you might break.’

‘I feared I might break too,’ she whispered. ‘And you never told Carmen?’

‘God! Carmen . . .’ He took a beat and laughed out loud, throwing his head back, which snapped any lingering tension. ‘Even hearing her name after all this time . . . That girl properly broke my heart.’

‘Because you liked her a bit too much?’

He laughed softly. ‘Exactly, because I liked her a bit too much.’

‘It’s my fault, isn’t it, that you’ve stayed away?’ Bess felt the familiar pull of sadness, fringed with guilt, but this was how to make amends, straight-talking, no matter how hard.

‘No, not your fault entirely. It was a terrible situation and I had no idea how to be around you or around Mum and Dad without it spilling from me. It felt like lying every time I spoke to them and didn’t mention it.’

‘I understand that.’

‘But this changes everything, Bessie. Thank you.’