Diana gave birth to a son when she was young and made the heart-wrenching decision to give him up, but years later, when she fell ill, she remembered the son she once had.

Raised in the English countryside, Emily was your run-of-the-mill girlno hidden talents for singing or fire-eating lurking under her plain jumpers. Her mother, practical to the bone and perhaps a touch pessimistic, kept her ambitions for Emily at approximately zero feet above sea level. After youre done at school, you’ll work at Mrs. Bennetts dairy or perhaps the corner shop, shed remark while peeling spuds. Not much else in this village, love.

But Emily was having none of it. After her GCSEs, she managed to thoroughly surprise everyone by getting pregnant by Tom, a boy barely a year her senior. The parental grapevine soon buzzed, and both sets of parents gathered around the tea table for a very British crisis summit. It was eventually decided, over half-eaten scones, that the new grandchild would live with Toms gran because Emily insisted she simply wasn’t cut out for nappies and late feeds, and her own mum couldnt spare two coins to rub together.

After the baby arrived, Emilys world shifted. She packed her bags and left her sleepy village for bustling Manchester, enrolling in art college. Turns out, she did actually have some artistic flair, along with an urgent desire to escape the endless weeding, water-fetching, and wood-chopping of rural life. City lights suited her: she took delight in Saturday-night dancing, catching films on Fridays, and the sheer thrill of supermarket aisles spanning as far as the eye could see. Plus, she found she could pay her own way with her paintingsmiracle of miracles.

In her final year at uni, life decided she wasnt quite busy enough, so Emily discovered she was pregnant again. She pondered her optionsnone of them greatbut eventually welcomed her second son into the world. Her fiancé supplied a room in his dads semi, but wrangling a toddler while writing art essays proved as difficult as her mothers attempts at online banking. In a moment of questionable parenting, she sent her little boy back to the village to stay with her mum. When her mother sadly passed away, Emily had no choice but to bring the lad back to Manchester.

Years zipped by. Emilys health took a nosedive and, in true British fashion, she began lacing her requests for help to her eldestnow thriving in Leedswith hearty helpings of guilt and a pinch of regret (I suppose youll just let your old mum fade away, will you?). Worn out by the relentless Mum text barrage, he persuaded her to move to Leeds so he could keep a closer eye on her. Emily packed her bags eagerly but ran up against one last plot twist: the younger boys father now wanted to step up, promising hed be a proper dad at last. Emily had her doubtsshed seen him try to cookbut, with a resigned shrug, agreed to let the little one stay with his dad, convinced that sometimes, the village really does take the child.