She swiped at the tears trailing down her cheeks as her voice cracked. ‘I should have let him go. I know that now. There were so many occasions when he came home and I knew he was building up to telling me it was over but I never let him come out with it. I pulled a guilt trip on him every time. There’d never been much passion between us. We were, after all, just really good friends. But if we weren’t sleeping together, I was never going to fall pregnant so I…’ She paused and shook her head. ‘You don’t need to know the details but let’s just say I took advantage. When I fell pregnant with the twins, I was under strict orders to avoid any stress so I knew I could keep Adam. For a while anyway.’

I was in shock and had no idea what to say. My mind was racing. Everything he’d told me that final time together about neither of them being in love with each other, about Fiona only being with him to have children, about him going home to end it so many times had all been true. He’d said that he’d never lied to me about any other aspect of his life and his wife had just confirmed that.

Fiona exhaled deeply then lifted her bag onto her knee. ‘I’ve got something for you. Dawn and I weren’t sure how you’d feel about this so you can say no if it’s too much.’

She reached into her handbag and took out something wrapped in a carrier bag. ‘We had Adam cremated. It felt wrong to scatter his ashes near me when I wasn’t the keeper of his heart.’ She placed a wooden box on the table. ‘I think he’d want his resting place to be near you, especially as he’d have been with you for real now if he hadn’t died.’

My hand shook as I slowly reached out and touched the pale wood. My fingertips rested on the box for a moment then I withdrew my hand.

‘He might not have gone through with it. He’d been seeing me for eighteen months and he’d never left you during that time. He might still have stood me up. He might still have chosen you.’

She shook her head. ‘He loved you. Not me. Not in that way. One day he was always going to fall in love for real and I only hoped that, by the time that happened, we’d have had the children I desperately wanted. He chose you, Jemma.’

‘You don’t know that. He’d already ghosted me once. He could have done it again.’