‘I know I shouldn’t have cheated on her back then the way I did, and I regret that. But she was freaking me out. Something definitely happened to her, Tara. She changed overnight into a paranoid nervous wreck who I didn’t know anymore. And now…’

‘What?’ I lean forward, eager to hear what he has to say and dreading it at the same time.

‘Tara, if Faye was being blackmailed by that woman who was found dead in the pit at Huntley… it would make sense that she’s the one who killed her. That could be what made her mad.’

I stand up and walk into the kitchen, refilling my wine glass. What is he talking about? Why does he think Faye was being blackmailed? Does Andriu know what we did? Did Faye tell him about my mam’s passing. She promised not to, so how did he come up with that theory about blackmail? Faye would not have broken her promise to me. Andriu must have found out some other way?

‘I’m not saying she killed her on purpose, she might have got into a row…’

‘Stop it, Andriu.’

I don’t want to hear this. What if he’s right? If it’s true that Faye has, as Andriu puts it, gone mad, and if she is no longer a doctor and is in care, then I have to consider that his theory could be right. Something must have pushed her over the edge. My stomach is churning and the wine is making me a bit dizzy even though I haven’t had much. I was the one who brought that woman into Faye’s life. If I hadn’t given her Faye’s name as the clinical assistant none of this would have happened. I don’t know what to think. Who to believe. Where to turn.

‘I told the detective.’ Andriu’s voice is like a blade cutting through my thoughts. I turn to look at him sitting on the chair, his eyes searching for my reaction.

‘You told the detective what?’

‘That I think there might have been an accident at Huntley Lodge, that Faye might have been the subject of Avril Ryan’s blackmailing scheme.’

‘But… when did you talk to them?’

‘Yesterday, they rang me.’

‘I’m sorry Andriu but I can’t believe this. Could that really have gone on and us not know something was up? Poor Faye.’ I think about how she left Huntley Lodge. The way she cut me out of her life so easily and things slowly begin to add up. Something did shake her. But murder? Faye? No.

Andriu stands and walks to the bottle of wine, filling his glass. I can smell his aftershave but it’s like poison to my senses. What is this man doing in my apartment? Why is he here telling me this, three days before my wedding? I need to talk to Lucas. I want Lucas.