Irving Berlinhof, Utrecht. Before the play begins.

CECILIA

You should know what I was before he found me. Eight years with Khanh. Eight years of being made to feel too much, too foreign, too inconvenient. Eight years of love that was not love at all. He gave me Emma. That I will not deny. But then he left. And threw us out with lawyers. A court order. Irving Berlinhof, Utrecht. Emma watching with her seven-year-old eyes. He tried to take the country too. My visa. I fought. I applied again. I made myself permanent in this country by my own hand. I am a poet. I write what I cannot say. I wrote six poems for Gijsbert while I loved him. Morning Dance. The Quiet Gardener. Gentle Shears. Kisses in the Kitchen. Dinner Can Wait. Peachy Plans. I wrote them all for him. He knew. And then — because God has a sense of theatre — I downloaded Bumble.