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‘Alex will love that – how is he?’

‘He’s sensitive and intelligent. It’s hard to know how much he understands, but he misses his mom, and he’s frightened. Understandably, he’s wary of me, and I don’t know how to overcome that.’

When Shauna had arrived at Isabelle’s apartment to collect him for his first sleepover, she was so nervous. She and Isabelle had agreed that they would do a few trial runs, and that sometimes Isabelle would stay over too. Isabelle was calm and kind, but wary of Shauna and she knew she would also have to win her trust. So many times she’d told herself she was doing the wrong thing – as had Isaac, who’d tried to talk her out of it, but a promise was a promise.

He stood in Isabelle’s apartment, clutching his toy llama, the same one that Frankie had kept by the side of her hospital bed. ‘Hello, Shauna.’ He smiled and, to her surprise, he pointed to a newspaper cutting of a photo of her propped up on a rickety shelf clinging to the wall. Perhaps it was the way Dan’s blue eyes stared up at her, guileless and innocent before frowning with sudden concentration, he was so quiet and so brave. ‘Do you have a garden?’ he asked her.

‘Yes, I do,’ Shauna said.

‘Can we grow alfalfa sprouts? Alfie likes alfalfa.’ He held his cuddly toy out to her and Shauna took it. ‘Hello, Alfie.’ She gave the toy a hug and then handed him back to Alex. ‘We also have a pool. Can you swim?’

Alex looked up at Isabelle, who nodded at him encouragingly. ‘I’m learning. I can swim with arm bands!’

‘Have you packed them?’

Isabelle nodded. ‘Then we can have a swim this afternoon. We’re going to have so much fun, Alex,’ Shauna had said.

She reached out her hand and he took it, then he turned and waved goodbye to Isabelle.

‘See you in a couple of days, pequeño,’ she said, and Alex gave her a little wave as they left the house.

‘It’s still tough, but we’re taking it slow. He still has nightmares and calls out for Frankie in the night. I’m so glad he and Isabelle are so close. Alex is spending longer periods with me, and Isabelle’s presence keeps him close to his mom.’

‘How is Isabelle?’

‘She’s still in remission, thank God, but she’s heartbroken about Frankie.’

The last month had been a roller coaster ride, but Shauna had devoted the time to building a relationship with him.

She’d taken a court injunction out to stop any reporting by the gutter press, and the whole experience had been an eye-opener for her. Alex was endlessly curious, and asked questions about every aspect of life – How did crickets make such a loud noise? Why were grasshoppers green? What made the sun rise every morning? He loved maple syrup on pancakes, Barney and Friends and she was growing to love him. Alex kept her excited about life and each day she loved him a little more. She had cleared her diary for the foreseeable future so a holiday was something she could contemplate. But wasn’t it better to leave the past where it belonged?

Later that afternoon, Shauna had put Alex down for a nap in his new room. It was decorated with llama wallpaper and was already filling up with Transformer toys and merchandise from all of their daytrips. Alex loved amusements and rides and Shauna hadn’t been to a fun fair since she was a child; they had both loved every minute and Shauna felt like a kid herself again. Despite her worries it had really thrilled her to see Alex so joyful and she tried not to spoil him, as she knew that Isabelle didn’t approve, but Alex had never been spoiled before and it gave them both pleasure.

‘We went on the Back to the Future ride, Tía!’ Alex told Isabelle on the phone when they’d got home. Alex called Isabelle Tía, which was Spanish for auntie; that was fine with Shauna who had no interest in trying to erase Frankie’s place in his heart, she only wanted to carve out her own.

As he napped, Shauna took a call from Isaac, putting her feet up on her large couch in her lounge which looked out over the lush garden and pool.

He was calling from his New York Office on Fifth Avenue. ‘How’s the boy enjoying himself?’ he asked.

‘He’s happy and exhausted!’ She laughed. ‘I can’t believe it’s only been a few months since I’ve known him. I don’t know how I’d live without him now.’

‘Shauna, I’m scratching my head here. We’ve got a package delivered for you and I’m not sure what to do with it, so I’ve couriered it over, you’ll get it this evening.’

That wasn’t strange in itself – as a top agent, Isaac got plenty of mail for his clients, usually fan letters or scripts from aspiring writers hoping to be discovered; sometimes it was weird and unwanted post, like love letters written in blood, sometimes it was a request that Shauna was happy to grant, like a signed photo.

‘What is it?’

‘It’s a book of poetry and a letter. The covering note says that we should give it to you personally and that it is from an old friend.’

They finished the call and Shauna was intrigued: who would be sending her poetry? Maybe it was related to a film part, but Isaac would have known that … She wracked her brains to think: could it be an old friend from university, or an old school chum from Ireland?

A short while later, there was knock at the door and Shauna took the parcel handed to her by a UPS delivery man, tipping him ten dollars.

She sat with the parcel on the comfortable leather chesterfield by the window and turned the package around in her hands. It was an ordinary Jiffy bag but when she looked at the postmark her heartbeat fluttered as she saw it was from Greece. Part of her wanted to stop right there and throw it into the trashcan and never find out what was inside, but there was another part of her, the Shauna O’Brien part, who had left something of herself in that beautiful country two decades previously and was itching to see what was inside.

Slowly, she opened the package and took out a book. There was a covering note which read:

Many years ago, I had the privilege of making the acquaintance of Shauna Jackson when she was known as Shauna O’Brien, I would be grateful if you could pass this to her with my kind remembrance.