‘The dust had cleared, but the auditorium was filling up with smoke. I knew I didn’t have long, but it took a while to work out where Amelia was buried. There was so much debris it was hard to make sense of it all, but eventually I found her,’ Claudia said breathlessly, as if she were back there in the auditorium. ‘I saw the top of her head, then her face. I thought she was …’

Claudia was staring into space as Justin put an arm around her. She pressed her cheek to his chest, leaving damp trails of tears on his cotton shirt.

‘I thought I was too late and I did consider leaving her where I found her, but I couldn’t un-see her body,’ she continued. ‘I moved a piece of timber to get closer and when I touched her arm, I felt it twitch. I can’t tell you how relieved I was, and scared too. I somehow managed to free her, but lifting her was almost impossible. She was a dead weight in my arms. And I did think she was …’

‘You saved her,’ Justin told her.

‘I stumbled towards this man.’

‘Rex Russell,’ Leanne confirmed.

‘He doesn’t remember me?’

‘I think he was too concerned with Amelia.’

‘So was I, but I was thinking of our baby too,’ Claudia said to Justin. ‘I didn’t want to strain myself any more than I already had, but I guess the damage was done.’

‘Is that why you’ve never told anyone?’ Leanne asked. ‘Is it guilt that stopped you coming forward?’

‘Guilt?’ Justin demanded. ‘She saved a child’s life.’

‘No, Leanne’s right. I do feel guilty. The miscarriage wasn’t simply one of those things that happened.’ Claudia’s lip trembled. ‘I made it happen.’

Justin responded by hooking a finger under her chin and lifting her gaze. ‘You have nothing to feel guilty about.’

Able to sit up, Claudia glanced at Leanne’s phone on the table. Everything she had said had been recorded. ‘Do you have to publish this?’

‘You don’t want to?’ Leanne asked, but she was beginning to understand. Claudia didn’t court publicity. Somehow it came to her unbidden.

‘I’m scared of what people might say,’ she said frankly.

‘People are going to adore you, Claude,’ Justin said. ‘You’re a hero.’

‘I don’t feel like a hero.’

Leanne could feel Mal breathing down her neck as if he were in the room with them. ‘Amelia thinks you are too,’ she said. ‘And because you haven’t come forward, she’s worried you died saving her. We can’t let her go on believing that, can we?’

‘You can do this,’ Justin said to his wife.

Claudia bit her lip. She was on the verge of agreeing.

‘Amelia would love to meet you,’ Leanne said, giving her one last push. She could already imagine the scene. ‘Her family will want to thank you.’