But before she could, Chloe burst out: ‘I don’t know what Hugo told you about me, but I’m sure he’s keeping secrets from you …’

Evie laughed flippantly. ‘Then, please, enlighten me. Tell me what you think I don’t know.’

Chloe shifted nervously on the pavement, and Evie had a strange feeling that this moment was going to change her relationship with Hugo.

‘So …’ Chloe began nervously. ‘I just need you to know that I didn’t want to be the one to tell you this. I’ve been begging Hugo to come clean, to do the right thing, but he’s given me no choice.’

Evie’s heart began to thud and she wondered if she should leave—perhaps she could convince herself that this had all been a bad dream. But something stopped her. She had to know what Chloe had to say or it would go on haunting her forever.

‘Hugo and I, we dated maybe two years ago.’

‘Yeah, I know,’ Evie said, trying to sound informed.

‘We met at a writing course in Cambridge when we were allocated to the same focus group on our first day. We hit it off from the get-go, and it was amazing for a long time. Hugo was different from anyone I’d ever met—smart, funny, romantic, attentive, spontaneous. I don’t need to tell you what Hugo is like at his best …’

‘And?’ asked Evie, wanting yet also desperately not wanting to hear what Chloe was going to say next.

‘But, as well as being full of light, there was a darkness to him. He was always so hard on himself. He felt like a failure with his acting. He’d done so well at RADA and everyone had expected him to be a major star. But he had knockback after knockback and he really hated the ‘we-told-you-so’ attitude of his family. He was desperate not to go back to law and he wanted to make a name for himself on his own, to vindicate his decision, to show his parents what he was made of—or something like that. He was obsessed with living up to the Hearst family reputation.’

Evie nodded, recognising some truth to what Chloe was saying.

‘When he decided to try his hand at writing, he was dogged by the same all-consuming worry. He just got so dark and angry when he felt like he was failing at that too.’ Chloe’s voice grew shaky, and she took a deep breath and composed herself. ‘You’ve got to know that I wouldn’t be telling you all this if Hugo had just done the right thing by me.’

Evie crossed her arms. This all felt so voyeuristic; so unfairly personal. The more she heard, the guiltier she felt for going behind Hugo’s back and talking to Chloe at all.