‘Because I need…’ She covers her face with her hands to compose herself, before dropping her arms to her side and looking Aidan in the eye. ‘Because I need the high more than I need her. More than I need anything.’

‘But… what are you doing with Lucy’s clothes?’ He is still clutching the crimson top dotted with yellow stars he’d pulled from the pile in the corner. ‘How did you even get them?’

‘From your washing line.’

‘You’ve been following her? You’re the white car she keeps seeing.’ Aidan holds the top to his chest as though he is holding his wife, saying sorry he hadn’t believed her.

‘When you told me a few days ago that you weren’t going to meet me anymore, I had to… I was angry. Thought if she were scared, you’d be scared and you’d change your mind.’

‘But after you left those knickers under the car seat I gave you more pills.’

‘It was… I felt I was doing something for Hailey. I keyed your wife’s car. I felt so angry. I knew you wouldn’t keep supplying me for long. When I heard on the radio your lad’s friends had gone missing, I thought sending that “eye for an eye” letter would unnerve you.’

‘I thought you’d taken him. I thought you’d taken them all. That’s why I came here. That text you sent – “I have something you want. Clock is ticking”– I thought that was Connor.’ He was wrong. Blood rushes to Aidan’s head and he begins to sway on his feet. ‘He’s not here, is he?’

‘No. I was referring to the recording of Lucy.’

A battle rages inside of him. Fury pitted against relief. She’s put him through so much, but Connor isn’t here. She hasn’t hurt him. Fear fights against a fleeting sense of freedom. Connor is still missing. But this… these weeks of hell where she’d been intent on destroying his family is over.

He wants to yell at her, hurt her, oddly thank her. The shake in his legs spreads to his torso, his whole body convulsing.

‘This is the end,’ he says with finality, trying to pull himself together, but he can’t.

He must.

He has to find his son.

‘What are you going to do?’ she asks.

‘I could press charges for blackmail. I can’t go on with this,’ Aidan says. ‘With you.’

‘I know,’ she says quietly.

There’s so much he could say in this moment, but she is not his priority, his son is.

He turns and stalks away. She doesn’t tell him that she is sorry, he doesn’t think she is.