‘Me too,’ I added, and the relief at being back in Fernfield hit me with such force that I had to stare out of the window and take a few deep breaths.

The Royal Oak was always busy on a Friday night, but we placed our order, managed to find a reasonably quiet table and sat down with our drinks. I was feeling utterly drained by the events of the day and my head was starting to ache, so I only ordered water in the end. I was feeling nauseous too, partly due to hunger, but also due to the ticking time bomb in my stomach that was on countdown to when Harvey arrived home to find me gone.

I needed to find the right moment to tell them that I was back for the foreseeable future, but first I wanted to know more about the situation between Evie and Darren. I waited until Dad went to the loo and took Evie’s hand.

‘Do you want to talk about it?’ I murmured, holding her gaze.

She groaned and gulped at her wine.

‘I’m just going to blurt it out quickly, okay? Because I’m permanently this close to tears.’ She demonstrated with a tiny gap between her thumb and forefinger.

I nodded encouragingly as Evie began to tell me what had happened.

She said last night she’d tried to explain how she felt to Darren: that a part of her was missing, that if she hadn’t had the miscarriage she’d have been a mum by now and that she didn’t think she’d ever stop grieving for the baby they’d lost, but that she still wanted motherhood – parenthood – to be part of their future. Darren couldn’t even discuss it.

‘He just clammed up,’ she said briskly, blinking away her tears. ‘He said he didn’t feel the same and that if that was what I wanted he wasn’t going to stand in my way. And then he packed a bag and I watched him leave, thinking that maybe this was the only logical next step.’

‘I’m so sorry.’ I swallowed the lump in my throat, not wanting to set her off in public. ‘And how do you feel now?’

She blinked mournful big eyes at me. ‘Exhausted, shell-shocked. But there’s a sort of relief in things coming to a head. We couldn’t continue as we were.’

‘Fish and chips?’ The waitress hovered over us with brimming plates and set them down just as Dad came back. Evie and I plastered on smiles, passed the condiments around and the conversation bumbled along for a few minutes while we tucked into our food.

‘Thanks for coming home at such short notice,’ said Dad, sprinkling more salt over his chips.

I felt the familiar prickle of rashy heat at my neck. ‘Actually, there are some things I need to tell you about me and Harvey.’

Evie looked up sharply. ‘Go on.’