Needing reassurance from someone I phoned Karen at lunchtime hoping to catch her on a break between clients.

‘You think I’m making a mistake too, don’t you?’ I asked when she remained silent after I’d told her about Scott’s reappearance. ‘It’s okay. You can say it. Leah, Tiff, Drew and Owen have all made it clear that I must have a screw loose.’

‘I’m trying to put myself in your shoes,’ she said. ‘How would I feel if I’d just discovered that Ryan wasn’t really called Ryan, that he was married and had been since way before we met so had basically been unfaithful to me the whole time we were together and, on top of that, his wife had given birth to premature twins who he’d just walked out on? Would I consider him to be a catch? Would he still be the one I wanted to spend the rest of my life with? Could I trust him not to meet some other random stranger on a train platform, give her a false name, have an affair with her, and walk out on me and our kids a few years down the line? With an attractive proposition like that, it’s certainly a dilemma.’

I sighed and slumped back in my chair. ‘When you put it like that, it makes me seem so pathetic.’

‘No. It makes him seem pathetic. Not you. I’m just not convinced he’s going to leave his wife and kids and, if he does, what sort of man is he? Honestly, Jemma, who abandons their newborn babies like that?’

‘He’s not going to abandon them. He’ll still see them and support them.’

‘And how’s that going to work? Will he continue to live in the family home, allegedly living separate lives? Because, if he wants to be a proper dad, he sure as hell can’t move to London to be with you when his kids are in Nottinghamshire.’

There was a pause and I couldn’t find any words. My head thumped and my stomach felt like it was on spin cycle.

‘Sorry for having a go,’ Karen said gently. ‘But you did ask.’

‘I know. And I wanted the truth.’

‘And you knew you’d get it from me.’

True. But I’d also wanted reassurances and was sure I’d have been able to rely on Karen to understand and see it from my point of view. It was worth one more push. ‘You do understand why I’m willing to explore giving him another chance, don’t you?’

Silence for a moment, then a big sigh. ‘I do. I wish I didn’t, but I do. If it had been Ryan, I know how hard it would be to walk away when I love that dopey idiot so much.’

‘So you’d give him another try if you were in my shoes?’