Alice’s forehead wrinkled in shock so satisfyingly she was grateful she’d never been to Dr M. ‘What did he say?’

‘He… apologised. He said he acted like a dick and he was sorry and he wouldn’t make a formal complaint about me. Regardless of “what happened in the future”. He stopped short of saying, if we got together, but that seemed to be his intention.’ Nate shrugged. ‘He actually seemed to be encouraging me to go back to Holsbrook. He said how much Charlotte had struggled since I’d left and asked if I would consider meeting him some time to talk through ASD strategies with him.’

‘No! “Strategies?” He used that word?’ Alice exclaimed.

‘Yeah,’ Nate nodded, as perturbed by this as Alice. ‘And then he asked me if I could recommend any books or things he could read!’

‘To read?!’ Alice screeched, as though Ted were incapable of such a thing.

Nate nodded. ‘It was a far cry from the angry man who waited for me outside school on that Monday morning and threatened to ruin my career if I ever spoke to his wife or daughter again.’ He took a contemplative sip of wine as Alice fanned herself with a coaster, overcome. ‘I think you should talk to him.’

*

Alice pondered what to do on the drive home. She had no intention of replying to Nina any time soon. She needed to process what had happened. It was too much. It was a lie that had penetrated the very foundations of her marriage, a marriage that had since disintegrated, and who knew what part Nina’s betrayal had played in that? And there was more that bothered her. It was the abrupt tone of: ‘I had to leave early, I had an emergency.’ So what? Alice had an emergency brewing too, fell face first into it when she returned home. But she would never have just left her friends like that without a word or a note.

And what had happened to Jules? Had Paul been abusive as she and Nina had suspected; perhaps not physically but emotionally, leaving a deeper, more indelible scar? Had they attempted that final round of IVF and were unable to fix themselves back together in the aftermath? There had been a time when Jules had allowed the girls to support her after her miscarriages. Not fuss over her as such, as she could never tolerate it, but they would sit together and watch TV, or order takeout, or eat leftovers from La City Pâtisserie. Ordinary acts, executed in silence. Sustenance and support. Had Jules needed them and they weren’t there? And there was something amiss with the Mantels. Why not pay her but then talk her up like that? Was that some rich person’s power play? Should she confront them? She wouldn’t know how to get in touch with them; Jules had been their go-between and their PA was legendary for withholding all but the most essential information from them.