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I turn back towards the security man, ready to be let out of the room, when there’s a shout.

‘He hit me! I didn’t do anything, he just hit me!’

I turn to see the boy with the sword nursing his cheek. The two adults with him look up from their phones.

‘Oi!’ says the young woman to Willow and stands up, marching towards him. Lara moves quickly and is by his side in a moment.

‘I’m sure it wasn’t intentional,’ says Lara.

‘Yes it was!’ says the boy.

‘I saw him!’ says the boy’s mother.

I suddenly feel enraged on Willow’s behalf, for this and everything else he has been through already at such a young age.

‘Impossible!’ I can’t stop myself from shouting out.

And then I’m marching over towards them. ‘You haven’t taken your eyes off your phones since I’ve been here. If you had, you would have realized your son, if that’s who he is, has been terrorizing everyone in here, him and his plastic sword. I’m surprised it’s the first time it’s happened. Frankly, that sword needs to go in the bin and you two need to stop scrolling on your phones and take a bit more notice of your little boy. He’s clearly crying out for attention!’

No one says anything for a moment.

Then the young man says, ‘Come on, Ryan, let’s go. Fancy a McDonald’s, Lex?’

She smiles and swings her hips. ‘You buying?’

‘If you lend me a tenner.’

‘Okay.’ She grins wider. ‘Come on, Ryan. Dad’s taking us to lunch.’

And Ryan runs around waving his plastic sword in triumph, as the security officer lets the young family out of the door.

Across the room, the young girl is handing her baby back to what I presume is the foster carer. She kisses the baby on the forehead and pulls up her loose, baggy jeans; a tattoo pokes out from above the waistband on her flat, taut stomach below her crop top. She brushes away a couple of tears and then pulls out her phone, heads for the door and leaves on her own. My heart twists for her, wondering what will happen to her and her baby, hoping there is a future out there for the two of them.

Hope: it’s what we all need, I think, even if we don’t know what’s round the corner. I turn back and look at Lara.

‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to . . .’ I say, now embarrassed at my outburst. My cheeks are still burning with indignation. The tension in here seems to have got to me.

‘Don’t worry,’ Lara says. ‘Willow and I were quite impressed! Weren’t we, Willow? First time I’ve seen him raise a smile in a while!’

And Willow looks down with just the tiniest shadow of a smile at the corner of his mouth.

‘Right, say goodbye to Gwen, Willow.’ She turns to me. ‘I’ll show you out.’

I turn to leave and walk across the emptying room. Walking towards what? Not hope. Who will be there for Willow when there is a problem again? What would Paddy think if he knew that we could have helped here? I think about Paddy; what a dad he would have made. I think about the family interactions I’ve seen today. Whatever I might do, could it really be any worse than some of those?

I swing round again and find myself looking, wide-eyed, directly at Lara. My brain tries to catch up with my mouth, but it’s already motoring.

‘Look, I can’t pretend I know what I’m doing. I need lots of help. Advice on what I’m supposed to do. I’ve never done this before. It’s just me. And Tegan.’

‘And the ducks,’ Lara says with a little tease in her voice.

‘And the ducks,’ I hurry on. ‘And I might be rubbish at it. He might hate it. I’m scared. I just hope . . . What if I can’t keep him safe? But . . . maybe, just for a while. Until his new home is found for him. Instead of being shunted around the countryside.’

She lifts her eyebrows.

‘I can’t not try. There has to be hope. What if there are more Ryans out there?!’

And she smiles widely and nods.