"Knowing doesn't erase how you feel. Or felt," she says, glancing over her shoulder to the room. "And there's nothing wrong with being hurt by it. You wanted a mother, just as your siblings had."

He's a little too old now to need a mother, but Claire's happy to fill in the gap.

"It took some time for me to not constantly think of him as a man that betrayed his wife, but... I got past it. I saw how much he loved you. A man like that couldn't possibly be as terrible as my mind wished to believe."