Once she had set up the new device, she texted him to say she’d had to give back her work phone and this was her new number, not elaborating in her message but already forming the back story in her mind: due to government cuts, the charity was clamping down on non-work-related calls and as a result she’d bought herself a new phone. There was no reason for him to question that the number he’d been dialling wasn’t her work phone, or that she didn’t already have a personal device. It wasn’t as though he’d seen evidence of a glut of family or friends who’d need to contact her.

He didn’t reply to the text, and she took it as a sign that he was still reeling from her refusal to immediately commit to moving in with him.

‘How was your day?’ Tom asked when she got home. He was sitting on the sofa watching the news, his voice still wary, unsure of where they were in relation to one another. It was like a dance, these interactions, no one sure who was to take the next step, or where it would lead.

‘Tiring,’ she said, placing her bag on the table.

‘There’s pizza,’ Tom said.

‘Thanks.’

She took out a plate from the cupboard.

‘Where are the kids?’

‘Upstairs,’ he said. ‘Hold on …’ He stopped talking to turn up the volume on the TV.

‘Gabriela?’ he called over to the kitchen area. ‘Isn’t that your boss?’

As she turned she saw a photo of Guy Emsworth, his porcine features filling the television screen as she moved across the room, the sight of him making her skin bristle.

‘An employee of Mr Emsworth’s department told the tribunal that Mr Emsworth, who until today was a leading director at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, discriminated against her after she refused sexual advances … Serena Ghosh—’

‘You didn’t tell me about this,’ Tom said, turning to look at her where she stood behind the sofa, her whole body pinned to the spot.

‘I didn’t know,’ she said, her eyes fixed on the screen though the words no longer reached her.

In that moment, the ground fell away.

As she moved into the next room, she pulled her phone out of her pocket and dialled Madeleine’s number. The dialling tone told her she was back in England.

‘Are you watching the news?’ Madeleine said when she picked up.

‘Yes,’ Gabriela said. ‘Are you back? Can we meet?’

Chapter 48

Gabriela