She just didn’t understand. But he was sure she would one day. She just needed a little time. He looked down to examine his arm, where blood bubbled up from the surface of the wound. He stood up, turned from her and started to walk down the beach. Just as he was about to slip around the side of one of the beach houses in the distance, he looked at her, raised his left hand as if to wave goodbye and then said something. He was too far away for her to hear. Then he was gone.

As the fragments of the past few months began to fall into place, Kate took hold of Josh’s head and cradled it in her hands. A tear dropped onto his pale face.

‘Yes,’ she said, whispering into his ear. ‘I don’t know if you can hear me, but my answer is yes.’

She took a deep breath and could almost taste the salt in the air. She reached down and touched her stomach. She moaned as the pain coursed through her body again. She looked up at the horizon. In the distance the blood red sun was about to set. She listened to the waves rise and fall. She continued to stare out to sea, no longer haunted by a dead child in the waves. She was thinking about life.