Five years after the divorce, my ex-husband chose the seat next to mine in first class — there were four empty ones

And I watched that land on him in a way that nothing else in the conversation had.

I did not understand why at the time. I do now, and I will come back to it, because it is the last thing in this.

We landed and I was extremely glad to get off that aircraft.

I came out through arrivals and there was a line of cars at the kerb, and a black estate pulled in, and the back door went, and three five-year-old boys got out of it.

“MUM.”

All three at once, at a volume that made a man with a suitcase stop walking.

And I went down on that pavement and got the three of them.

And then I looked up.