‘Everything all right?’ she’d asked, her stomach turning in dread. Oh no. Don’t tell me, she thought. Charlotte was so incensed with the way her daughter was being treated, she had insisted that George remove her from the house immediately and return Seren to the safety of Cheltenham. George had agreed that yes, Em and her family were a dangerous influence on his precious girl, and he was about to dump her and the holiday in one fell swoop. He hated her and never wanted to see her again!

His eyes were dark and severe, with none of their usual sparkle; she had never seen him look so forbidding. Back as a little girl, her childhood dog, Brandy, had always let out a nervous whimper whenever he felt he might be in line for a scolding, and Em could feel the same animal instinct inside her too, to make a similarly pitiful noise. Don’t be cross with me. I’m sorry. Whatever it is, I’m sorry! But in the next moment George sank onto the bed with a sigh and she realized that his bad mood might not be directly connected to her after all.

‘Well, I had an interesting chat with Charlotte,’ he said heavily. ‘Turns out Seren didn’t tell the truth this morning about Izzie pushing her. She made the whole thing up.’

‘What, so she lied? An out-and-out lie? Are you serious?’ Okay, she had not been expecting that.

‘Yeah.’ He scratched his chin, a rueful look on his face. ‘Charlotte got it out of her, with a few stern questions. Apparently it’s happened before too. Getting other girls in her class told off, pretending they hurt her or scribbled on her artwork, when it turned out not to be true. Eventually there was this huge backlash at the end of term, when several parents complained to the teacher about Seren’s behaviour.’

‘God,’ said Em, trying to take all of this in. ‘So at the beach today . . .’

‘Fake news. Well, presumably she did actually fall in the pool, but Izzie didn’t push her.’ His voice was becoming grimmer by the second, his face sagging as he spoke. ‘I feel bad for instantly believing her now, thinking the worst of Izzie . . .’

Her daughter’s newly proven innocence made Em instantly generous. ‘Of course you believed her,’ she soothed. ‘Look, we’re always going to be biased towards our own kids, that’s just part of the deal here, isn’t it?’

‘I’ll apologize to Izzie, obviously. And Seren will too.’ He ran a hand through his hair. ‘I’m a bit stunned by all of this, I have to say.’