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Sarah’s face wrinkles. ‘That’s weird. Max didn’t know her, did he?’
‘No.’
‘Then Ivy must have got it wrong. I can ask Mum if Ivy mentioned anything at the time. It is weird that he’d be at Brent Cross with a woman. Very weird. But…maybe it was someone who looked like Max. Alice was a personal trainer, wasn’t she? She’d have no reason to have any dealings with Max’s company.’
‘That’s what I thought. I just wanted to check.’
‘I don’t know what to suggest. If I were you, I’d be going out of my mind. Worrying. Wondering. But then, I have trust issues, don’t I? Maybe that’s clouding my judgement. Let’s think logically. Ivy’s always saying stuff. She gets things muddled sometimes. You know, speaks before she thinks. I guess that’s completely normal at her age.’ Sarah pauses. ‘Did you ask Max if he knew Alice Hughes?’
I swallow the heavy lump in my throat. ‘He doesn’t.’
‘Then either Ivy saw Max with someone else, or she saw Alice Hughes with someone who looks like Max?’
‘Maybe.’
Sarah jumps up. ‘Only one way to find out.’ She walks to the living room door. ‘Ivy? Can you come here a sec, please?’
The girls thud downstairs, bursting into the room.
‘Mummy!’ Poppy says, running over to me and throwing her arms around me. ‘I don’t want to go yet. I haven’t even had breakfast.’ She flaps her arms. ‘And I’m still in my pyjamas.’
‘Sorry,’ Sarah says, standing up. ‘I was about to get them something.’
I pat the seat next to me and Poppy jumps on the sofa.
‘Listen, sweetheart,’ I begin. ‘Daddy had an accident last night on his way home from work, and he’s in hospital. He’s doing okay, but he’ll need a lot of looking after when he gets home. He’s very hurt.’
Poppy stares at me for a moment before her face crumples and she bursts into tears. I hold her tightly and stroke her hair. ‘I want Daddy,’ she cries, her tears soaking through my T-shirt.
‘He’ll be okay,’ I assure her, even though I’m not convinced of this myself. ‘We’ll make sure he is. We have to look after him together, okay?’
She nestles into me, her fingers clinging tightly onto my arms. ‘Does this mean he can’t go to work?’
‘Not for a while,’ I say.
Sarah comes over to give her a hug too. ‘How about you go to the kitchen and choose some cereal for you and Ivy?’
Poppy rushes off and Sarah turns to Ivy. ‘Listen, sweetheart. I need to ask you something and I’m going to need you to have a really good think, okay?’
Ivy nods.
‘Did you see Poppy’s daddy at Brent Cross when you were with Grandma? It would have been a few weeks ago.’
Ivy glances at me before nodding.
‘And you’re sure it was him? Was it definitely Poppy’s dad?’
Once more, she looks at me before answering. ‘Yes. I’m sure.’ She shrugs.
‘You don’t seem sure,’ Sarah says. ‘Was it definitely Poppy’s daddy?’
Ivy’s nose wrinkles and she chews her lip. ‘Yes, Mummy.’
Sarah grabs her phone from the coffee table and scrolls through it. When she’s found what she’s looking for she holds it out to Ivy. ‘And was he with this woman?’
I catch a glimpse of Alice Hughes’s blonde hair. The smile that forces you to notice her.
‘That’s her!’ Ivy says. ‘The poor dead lady. Poppy’s daddy’s friend. The dead one. We walked right past them.’
