Abbott banged his half-full bottle down, sat back and slung his hand across the back of the chair beside him. Opposite, Tess wore a face that he hadn’t seen in a long time, a reminder that you were best advised not to fuck with her. But Abbott was too far up the escalator to care. All he knew was that he wanted her to feel anything for him other than the dreaded pity. Even if that feeling were to despise him.

‘Alex,’ she began to say, because of course she had no idea where he was going with this.

But he stopped her. ‘No, I’ve got something I want to say.’

‘I don’t think you should,’ she pressed, and she stood, as though her standing might draw a line under the matter. Perhaps that worked in her high-level lawyerly meetings. Perhaps that was how she silenced her opponents in court. But not here, not now. Because now, he would be heard.

‘Tess told me something about my brother,’ he said to Phil and then could not resist letting his eyes slide to Tess, seeing the relief in her face, knowing that even while letting her down and trampling on her hospitality, he had in one respect let her off the hook. ‘She told me that my brother didn’t die the way my parents told me. She told me that he was taken by a paedophile.’

‘I’m sorry. I’m really sorry,’ Phil was saying. He regained his seat carefully. His eyes went to Tess, wanting to check that everything was OK, and it was painfully obvious from that glance that Abbott was no longer the amiable guest drinking a little too much and prone to saying inappropriate things in front of the kids. All of a sudden, Phil was a guy who feared that he might have a monster in his house.

‘Only she told me that the guy died in prison,’ continued Abbott, ‘but he didn’t die in prison, did he, Tess? You lied to me.’

‘Alex . . .’ she started.

‘Christ, why did you even tell me about Scutter in the first place?’

She shook her head. ‘I don’t know. Because you deserved to know the truth. You’d been lied to.’

‘Look, I’m not sure if this is the best time or place to discuss this,’ tried Phil.

‘And you thought the best thing to do was lie some more? You thought that would help matters?’

‘For your own protection. So you wouldn’t get any ideas in your head about going after the guy.’

‘So you lied?’

‘Yes, I lied.’

‘And I’m just supposed to forget that?’

Their voices were rising. Both of them. ‘Guys,’ said Phil, trying to calm the situation. Trying and failing. ‘Guys . . .’

‘You’re supposed to forgive it,’ she insisted.