Candles blown out and wishes made – hers perhaps an impossible wish – they’d decided on a family afternoon as a treat for Sophie’s postponed birthday. It was the first workday they’d all been home together that wasn’t tinged with unbearable sadness, and being with each other seemed fitting. Clearing up in the kitchen, Alicia went to join Justin and Sophie in the lounge, but stopped short of the door, wanting to simply listen to father and daughter talking, as they used to.

‘So what do you fancy?’ Justin asked Sophie, picking up the TV remote. ‘A film, Homeland or a rerun of Game of Thrones?’

‘Not fussed,’ Sophie said. ‘You choose.’

‘A film,’ Justin decided, flicking to Netflix. ‘Something cheerful, hopefully, that your mum will fancy too.’

‘Okay?’ Alicia heard him ask softly a second later, as he browsed.

‘Better,’ Sophie answered, her voice sounding so young, so vulnerable, it almost wrenched Alicia’s heart from inside her.

Paul Radley had tried to steal her daughter’s identity. She’d suffered at his hands, because of her own mother. Alicia had been trying to keep their family together, yet she’d almost torn them apart. She’d worried that Justin and Sophie might never be able to forgive her, but she’d underestimated them both. What Sophie needed to do now was what her mother had felt unable to: talk about what had happened, not allow it to fester inside her, asking herself ‘what-ifs’. What if I hadn’t…? What if I’d done this differently? Or that? From that came self-doubt. That was the negative emotion that ultimately destroyed people, stifled them and robbed them of all they could be. If anyone could help Sophie get past that, realise she wasn’t responsible for other people’s actions, it was Justin, who’d loved her unquestioningly. Who always would. Alicia had made a mistake all those years ago in not telling him, yet she’d made at least one good decision in her life, of that Alicia was sure. There was no father more loving than Justin. He would always be there for his daughter.

‘Dad… I’m sorry,’ Sophie said hesitantly, ‘about taking off like that at the shopping centre. About being so angry with you. I think I was a bit screwed up. After Luke, I mean. And then, when I heard… what you said… and realised…’

‘You and me both,’ Justin assured her, as she trailed off. ‘We all say stuff, Sophie – heat-of-the-moment stuff, when we’re hurting or angry, which doesn’t reflect what we really feel inside. I think the best thing we can do now is move forward don’t you?’ he asked her tentatively. ‘Be there for each other?’

Sophie paused. ‘Just so you know, though, I never stopped thinking about you as my dad, no matter what I tried to tell myself. Not in my heart.’

‘Looks like you’re stuck with me,’ Justin joked. ‘So… are you going to eat the rest of that cake, or am I going to have to help out?’

‘Ditto. For your sins,’ Sophie answered, her tone sounding less uncertain and more like herself. Alicia felt hope rise inside her that she wouldn’t be too affected by the monster who’d tried to control her. ‘And, no you can’t have my cake,’ she added. ‘It’s, like, chocolate.’

‘More than I dare do to go near that then.’ Justin chuckled.

‘Do you still love Mum?’ Sophie asked, just as Alicia was about to go in.

Alicia stepped back, fearing his next words might truly kill her.

‘I never stopped loving her, Sophie,’ Justin said, after a second that seemed to last an eternity. ‘Why would I have?’

‘Can you forgive her for what she did?’ was Sophie’s next question. ‘For not telling you about me, I mean?’

Again, Justin hesitated. ‘I wish she had told me,’ he said eventually. ‘I wish she’d felt able to.’ He paused, drawing in a breath. ‘I think she did what she did with the best intentions though. It’s not easy to accept, if I’m honest – not easy to accept my own culpability in why she felt she couldn’t – but yes, I think I can. Can you?’

‘Uh-huh,’ Sophie said thoughtfully, after a second. ‘Her decision-making was a bit shit, but I do think she made the choices she did for the right reasons.’

Sophie would heal. In time she would be whole again. And if she faltered in the future, Justin would always be there to catch her. Alicia swallowed back a different kind of lump in her throat.

‘I’ve brought you an extra slice,’ she said, going on in. ‘I think we deserve to indulge—’ She stopped as Justin’s phone rang, an uneasy feeling of trepidation washing over her.

Placing his cake on the coffee table, she sat down next to where Sophie was parked on her favourite spot on the sofa.

Glancing worriedly at her, Justin got to his feet, nodding towards the hall to indicate he would take the call there.

‘You forgot a crumb.’ Alicia smiled at Sophie, who was dabbing up the last of the cream from her plate with her finger.

Justin came back into the lounge a minute later, his face pale, Alicia noted – worryingly pale. ‘DI Taylor.’ He smiled, for Sophie’s sake. ‘He wants to have a chat.’

Alicia nodded slowly. ‘When?’ she asked him, trying to remain calm, though her stomach knotted inside her.

Justin kneaded his forehead. ‘He’s on his way.’