He gave a short laugh. ‘As I’m offering to pay you its full value, I don’t think you’ll get the police to arrest me. If you prefer, you can take your stock away – by arrangement, as I’ve already taken possession of your keys.’

‘From my drawer?’ she cried.

He inclined his head. ‘My drawer, I think you’ll find.’

Dazed, she stared at him, casting about for ammunition. She had no legal footing! Where would she put a shop full of belts and bags? Albin had allowed her to trade from premises on which he’d held the lease … and now he wasn’t. There had never been a written agreement. If he’d taken the keys from the drawer by their bed then she couldn’t open the shop. She managed, feebly, ‘I employ Julia, not you.’

‘But you’ve ceased trading,’ he said slowly, gently, as if talking to a child coming down from a tantrum. ‘There’s nothing left for you in Stockholm. I’ll pay Julia for performing the stocktake.’ He rose, tossing back the last of his whisky. ‘I’ve moved your things into the spare room … temporarily.’

She gazed at him, a hand to her throat as if her rage and shock would choke her, hurling her mind back over events to try to make sense of them. ‘Why did we change?’ she demanded huskily. ‘It feels as if there should be a – a day, an incident, some thing that altered us.’

Something flickered in his eyes but he shrugged and said, ‘Goodnight.’

For long hours, Hannah lay awake in the spare room, horror knotting her stomach as she entertained wild plans to take Albin to court and … and … do something. But Albin would swat such an attempt away like a bothersome fly. She’d been living rent-free in his family’s apartment and she hadn’t officially sublet the shop. Since leaving her job with IKEA in Kungens Kurva and her rented studio apartment in the southern Stockholm suburb of Farsta, Hannah’s life in Sweden had been built upon Albin’s goodwill.

She’d been crazy, now she looked back on it. Bonkers. She’d allowed herself to be carried along on the back of someone else’s life. Albin could put her out the door like last year’s coat. There’s nothing left for you in Stockholm. He’d made sure of that.

As soon as it was light, Hannah hurried to Hannah Anna Butik, needing to see it with her own eyes. To rattle the door. The lights were off. She thought she glimpsed someone inside, maybe Julia, but her rapping on the glass was ignored. There’s nothing left for you in Stockholm … She turned away, eyes stinging.