Scott gazed at me, a soft smile on his lips. ‘Same here. It was unexpected and crazy but I knew I had to continue seeing you. I hadn’t had an argument with Fi. We weren’t going through a rough patch. She did understand me. I wasn’t looking for anyone else so it made no sense but there you were and it was like being struck by a lightning bolt. What I had with you was so exciting and passionate and completely different to what I had with Fi or any other girlfriends before her and I couldn’t get enough of you.’

‘But you were married. Surely you knew that what you were doing was wrong?’

‘This is going to sound awful but I barely gave Fi a second thought that night. I was mesmerised by you, Jemma. As soon as I met you, I knew what real love looked like and that I’d made a huge mistake marrying Fi. I didn’t love her. Not in that way.’

Butterflies swarmed in my stomach and I felt a rush of love for him, but I had to push my feelings aside. This was about getting an explanation. It was absolutely not about forgiving him and trying again. ‘If you didn’t love her, why did you marry her?’

‘I mistook friendship for love. I had this overwhelming need to protect her after what she’d been through with Begsey and I got carried away. We both did. We should never have taken things beyond friendship. When I woke up with you by my side, I knew I had to be with you forever instead of Fi. I knew it would be painful but I was going to tell her the truth and end it when I got home, tell you all about the Scott Hastings thing, and hope that you forgave me for what genuinely had been a little white lie.’

‘So what happened when you got home because clearly you didn’t leave your wife for me and I had no idea you were really called Adam?’

Scott slumped back in his chair. ‘Crap timing, which has become a bit of a theme. I got home to find her in tears. She’d started a new job a few months before, which she absolutely loved, but her manager had told her he was letting her go. Begsey had cornered him one night and had asked if he had good insurance because, if he didn’t sack Fi within a week, he might find he needed to claim on the fire policy. If he went to the police, the same would happen to his home. Fi was devastated that she’d lost her job, but she was even more devastated that Begsey still had a hold over her.’

‘Then why didn’t you do the right thing and end it with me?’