‘Jersey is very insular.’ Caroline helped herself to more tea, adding milk straight from the bottle. Maddy had been too distraught to bother with the niceties of a jug. ‘Drew and I more or less grew up together. We found each other attractive, and we’d always been friends. I think we each thought we could change the other, the way that you do when you’re young. By the time we found we couldn’t, and had lapsed into being so apathetic that we didn’t even want to, it was too late. I used the miscarriage as an excuse. I made him sweat with guilt because he wanted children and I didn’t.’ She leaned forward, her eyes glistening. ‘Then he fell in love with you.’

‘I think he did,’ Maddy admitted sadly. ‘For a while … but I always knew I was only borrowing him from you. Anyway, you’ve got something that I couldn’t possibly supply.’

‘Oh? And what is that?’ Caroline’s lips curved into a smile.

‘Money.’ Maddy shrugged. ‘I could never back him the way you have. So is he going to go back to Jersey?’ She wanted to stuff her fingers in her ears, not wanting to hear the answer.

Caroline shook her head.

‘So you’re moving to Milton St John?’

Again, the shake of the head. Maddy rubbed her face wearily. They must be planning to move away to start afresh. Together. It was all she deserved. It hurt far more, than she could bear.

‘He’s left me. He wants a divorce.’

The words rang with hollow victory. Maddy scraped back her chair and walked to the skewwhiff window. The garden was plunged into impenetrable blackness, inky and suffocating, all life extinguished. Drew would be free. And he had Angie. Angie must have money, too. Caroline would retain what friendship she wanted from him. But for Maddy there was nothing. She turned from the window.

‘When you spoke to him earlier, when you discussed all this, was A–’ She gagged on the word and tried again. ‘Was Angie there?’

‘Angie?’ Caroline’s eyebrows arched. ‘Who is Angie?’

Maddy closed her eyes. ‘He took her to Kimberley’s reception. I – we’ve only seen each other once since that evening.’

‘Yes, he told me.’

‘He introduced me to Angie.’ She gulped again. ‘He was with her all day. She was very pretty. They left together. I thought –’

Caroline looked genuinely mystified. ‘I’ve never heard of Angie. There was an Annabelle once in St Helier who made a bit of a nuisance of herself, and Anna from somewhere on the south coast who thought she could oust me … but Drew was never interested. I’ve never heard of an Angie.’

Clenching and unclenching her fingers, Maddy sat down again. She felt very sick. ‘Is the divorce why you came to see Drew tonight?’