‘She only has herself to blame. It must have taken some gall to spend a year pretending you were involved in a disaster when you were little more than a bystander. And if that wasn’t bad enough, she goes and puts herself centre stage and tells even bigger lies? I don’t understand her. Why would she do it?’

‘I don’t think I helped. I was asking questions she couldn’t answer truthfully, like why she apparently reached the exit only to turn back.’

‘I’ve been thinking about that. I didn’t know who she was at the time. I wouldn’t have connected her with Declan, but she stood out for a reason. Maybe it was because I was looking for Karin and they both have dark hair, but I think there was another reason. We were all covered in grime and she was there with her perfect make-up and her cream coat. Could that be why she went inside? Did she want to get as messy as the rest of us, or at least absorb the smell of smoke?’

‘Some of those who got out first didn’t have a mark on them, so it wasn’t entirely necessary, but you might be right,’ Leanne said. She closed her eyes and attempted to put herself in Claudia’s position that night. It made her skin crawl.

The Empress Theatre

Sedgefield, Cheshire

As the white rabbit made her entrance onstage, Claudia was lying in Declan’s bed. She was as focused as the little dancer, but there was no guiding voice inside her head, no choreographed next steps. The decisions she had to make were hers and hers alone.

‘You need to tell him,’ Declan said as he cupped Claudia’s face and wiped away a single tear with his thumb. He thought she was crying for sweet Justin.

Claudia turned away, and when she dragged herself out of the bed, she knew it would be for the last time. ‘I have told him,’ she said as she began to dress.

Declan raised himself onto an elbow, his eyes alight. ‘Why didn’t you say sooner?’

‘I mean, I’ve told him about the baby. He’s thrilled. We both are.’

Unable to say what needed to be said while looking at the tangled sheets she could never return to, Claudia left Declan to grab his clothes and went into the kitchen to make some coffee. She hated that he only had instant.

Claudia hadn’t intended to break up with Declan that night, but he had become far too invested in her pregnancy. Unfortunately, because she was using the ballet as her cover story, the earliest she could arrive home without causing suspicion was ten thirty. It wasn’t even eight o’clock. It was going to be a very long night.

With his shirt hanging open, Declan was buckling his belt as he joined her. ‘You’re staying with him?’