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“You’re welcome,” I reply. I know he should have had so much more, but it felt like a peace offering, the least I could do.

“I shouldn’t have been a dick about it.”

“It’s fine.”

“No, it isn’t. I’m sorry.”

I refuse to acknowledge or accept his apology. It’s too much of a slippery slope if I allow myself to think about his compassionate side.

“How did your first conversation with her go?” I ask, changing the subject.

He turns to look at me properly, his face no longer hidden away by the baseball cap he’s worn since I met him outside the hospital. Now, his face lights up. He barely knows her, but he reminds me of every stereotypical father at the mention of their child. The bitter part in me reminds me that he’s an actor and damn good at playing the required part. The smaller and slightly nicer part reminds me we called a truce. I’m not supposed to be a bitch.

“She’s just amazing. I know we didn’t get chance to talk for too long, but… God, Delilah, she’s wonderful. Perfect.” He stares at me with such genuine warmth.

“She has a passion for acting.” I offer a little bit of information about her, something that always made me think about him when she was onstage or telling Verity she wanted to go to drama school.

“Really?” he asks.

“Yeah. She was the lead in the school production before… you know.”

I think back to being in the school theatre, watching Maddie onstage as she recalled her lines with perfect precision and acted her socks off. I saw the play with Felix and Verity, and I was in awe of her skill, wondering if it was possible she could have inherited the love for the theatre from me or her acting skills from her father.

“The doctor is ready for you now,” a nurse states as she steps in front of us, cutting off any response Joseph may have wanted to give.

We get up together, and he follows me into the doctor’s room. Almost like a show of respect, Joseph takes off his baseball cap before we take our seats. He holds it in his hands, playing with the peak, folding it slightly in his hands.

Dr Kidman looks slightly exhausted, and I wonder what his last consultation was like. Was he giving bad news? Another generic update where it’s still the message of “we’ll see how things go”? How many times a day does he get to give good news? I couldn’t do his job. I’m sure bad news outweighs the volumes of the good news.

“Hello, Delilah,” he greets me warmly. He looks at Joseph. “You must be the biological father.” Dr Kidman smiles at him. Not for the first time, I wonder how many family secrets have unravelled in front of this doctor.

“Thank you for taking time to talk to us,” I reply.

“Okay, so if I’m right, this is to give you an update on Madeline’s care, and the potential steps if we decide the best route is for a bone marrow transplant,” Dr Kidman says, glancing at his notes.

“Madeline is going to school. Is that safe for her?” Joseph blurts out.

“We wouldn’t let her do something that hasn’t been deemed safe,” I murmur.

“I’m sorry, I’m just new to all of this.” Joseph addresses the first part of his response to me and the second to Dr Kidman.

“Sometimes it is a balance between keeping a patient isolated for their own safety and also trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle and activities. Treatment can be very isolating at times, and Madeline expressed an interest in returning to some sort of normal. We’ve done our best to keep things relatively normal this time around,” Dr Kidman explains.

“Why are you taking so long to decide whether she needs a bone marrow transplant?” Joseph asks.

“Patients need to be healthy for a transplant, so we’ll keep assessing Madeline and make the decision based on her health,” Dr Kidman replies.

“What is the process if she needs one? How do you test I’m the right person?” Joseph’s attention is wholly on Dr Kidman, and he leans forward in his seat, looking like this is the most important piece of information he’ll ever hear.

“We’ll start with blood samples for basic testing. There are specific things we need to test for, to check suitability. As Madeline’s biological father, you’ll be a 50 percent match. We’ll do a full medical history on you, assess you as a candidate, more blood tests, other tests like an ECG and chest X-rays to assess your health. Be prepared to answer a lot of questions through the medical questionnaire,” Dr Kidman says, and Joseph nods along, like each point is being committed to memory.

“And this all starts with the blood test? Do we do all the other tests, too, or do we have to wait until you decide about the need for a transplant?”

“We’ll start with the blood test and take it from there. If you have any medical conditions, it would be best to mention them now rather than later down the line, should we choose to go in this direction.” Dr Kidman stares at Joseph.

“I’m healthy. I can’t remember the last time I was sick, and the last medical assessment I did for the film company wasn’t that long ago, and fully clear.”

“Do you have any other questions you would like to ask?” Dr Kidman asks.