She would tell Madeleine, too. Madeleine would be livid that it had taken her so long to come clean, but now was better than never. Besides, the only way in which he could definitively ruin her life was by destroying her mind, and by backing her into this corner that was exactly what he was doing, crushing her from the inside out. The one thing he hadn’t anticipated was that she would call his bluff.

She chose a Friday evening to do it, building herself up to it as she made her way back from her pacing along the Thames. She’d called Madeleine earlier that morning, leaving a message to say she had something important to tell her and asking her to ring back when she could. Collecting a takeaway on her way home from her and Tom’s favourite curry house in Kentish Town, she texted him en route, asking him to stick the kids in front of a movie so that they could eat in peace. I have something I need to tell you.

Gabriela knew something was wrong even as she reached the front door.

‘What’s going on?’ she asked as she moved into the hall and Tom gave her a look that told her to back off.

Sadie was sitting at the kitchen table, her eyes red and swollen.

‘Something happened at the park, after school.’ Tom’s face warned her to tread carefully.

‘What happened?’

‘Sadie … she went off with someone.’

‘I didn’t,’ Sadie said, her voice on the verge of hysterics. ‘I told you, he said he was a friend of Mummy’s …’

A fist hit her stomach.

‘What happened, baby?’ she asked and Sadie looked away, ashamed.

Tom beckoned Gabriela towards the back door, stroking his daughter’s hair reassuringly as he passed.

‘A man … I don’t quite understand what happened, but we were at the playground on the Heath after school and I was helping Callum on the bridge, and when I turned around, Sadie wasn’t there.’

‘What do you mean she wasn’t there?’ Gabriela said, her voice accusing.

‘I mean she wasn’t fucking there … I looked for her for about five minutes and when I found her she was outside on the path, with an ice cream. She said some man had told her he was a friend of yours and to come with him to the café, that it was a surprise that you were waiting there … And then he bought her an ice cream and sent her back.’

Gabriela felt a scratching down the back of her throat and she turned, lunging towards Sadie so that she jumped.

‘Sadie, who was the man?’

‘I don’t know,’ she said, obviously scared. ‘He was just a man.’

‘What did he look like?’ Gabriela asked and her daughter started to cry.

‘I don’t know …’

‘What colour was his hair, his skin, his eyes? You must remember something, this is important. Think!’