His anxious eyes noted how the child brightened, and his heart began to beat with hope. “We’ve got so much to do together,” he said. “We can go to the zoo and see the lions and tigers and-”

“Uncle Tony says it’s wrong to keep lions and tigers behind bars,” Peter said, frowning. “He says it’s cruel.”

Gavin took a deep breath. “All right, never mind the zoo. You can have that computer game you wanted. And we’ll-”

“Can I have a puppy all of my own?”

“Well, that’s not going to be easy, because our flat doesn’t have a garden.”

“But Uncle Tony says-”

“All right, you can have a puppy,” Gavin said hastily. “Shall we go now?”

“Is Mommy coming, too?” Peter asked.

“No, just the two of us.”

“But I want Mommy. I want Mommy.”

In the silence that followed, he knew he’d lost. He was a hard man, but not hard enough to force a four-year-old child to leave his mother against his will. He sighed. “I guess that’s that, then,” he said.

“Are you going to stay with us?” Peter asked hopefully.

“No, I-I just came to see how you were.”

“But I want you to stay.”

“And I’d like to be with you but-Mommy and I can’t be together any more-”

“Why not?”

It would have been so easy to say, “Because she’s a faithless wife who walked out and she’s the one keeping us apart.” Put the blame on Liz, where it belonged. Teach her son to blame her. See what she made of that.

But he couldn’t make himself tear the child apart. He despised himself for a sentimental weakling, but he couldn’t do it. “Because that’s the way it has to be,” he said with a sigh. “You and I will still see each other sometimes. As often as I can manage. I promise. Be a good boy for your Mommy and-”

Before he got the next words out a whirlwind seemed to descend on him, Peter was snatched from his arms and Liz was standing there before him, her face blazing. “I might have known you’d try something like this,” she said furiously. “Another moment and you’d have spirited him away. Oh, thank God I got here in time!”