‘So what made you tell me now?’

‘Adam’s office forwarded me an envelope containing a blank cheque for £500. You hadn’t signed the note but your name was on the cheque. I didn’t know what to make of it so I told Dawn. She’d been keeping an eye on Adam’s phone and said that you’d sent him a text saying you wanted the money to go to the hospital or the twins. It was obvious that you were a decent person and not the husband-stealing bitch I wanted to believe you were. She said I definitely owed you the truth so here I am. I donated the money to the special care baby unit, by the way.’

I sipped on my water, trying to take it all in. Scott was dead. He hadn’t stood me up. He’d been laid out on a mortuary slab instead. I shuddered at the thought.

‘It’s a lot to take in, isn’t it?’ Fiona said. ‘I often have to remind myself that he’s not just away on another business trip. He’s never coming home again.’

We sat in silence. The tears started again as I thought about how hurt I’d been after that last text from him and how much I’d hated him at that moment. And he hadn’t even sent it!

‘Did he tell you that I tricked him into marrying me?’ she asked. ‘I’d always longed for children and I saw Adam as my chance to have a normal loving family. I’d been badly hurt – physically as well as emotionally – by the one man I fell in love with. Adam had never shown me anything but friendship and kindness. I thought it would be enough for us to make it but I began to feel him slipping away from me and, with him, my chance to have children. There was no way I could trust anyone else after what Begsey did to me. It was so wrong of me but I was desperate. I told Adam I was pregnant knowing that he’d ask me to marry him because that’s the sort of man he was. I lay awake each night, haunted by feelings of guilt. I kept psyching myself up to tell him the truth but I couldn’t face losing him. A couple of weeks later, I discovered I really was pregnant. I convinced myself that it was a sign and Adam and I were meant to be together. I had this little fantasy that we’d properly fall in love with each other when we became a real family. It was a quickie wedding with a handful of guests but we lost the baby at eight weeks. I knew then that I should let go of Adam too but I couldn’t. I was too scared.’