‘That’s kind.’ She clears her throat. ‘How was he?’

‘The police came while I was there.’

‘They arrested him?’

‘Yes.’

She closes her eyes tightly. ‘Alice has stopped crying. She’s probably fallen asleep again.’ Eliza puts the door on the latch, makes extra sure by grabbing a key from a hook and slipping it in her pocket, then steps outside and pulls the door shut behind her. ‘Just in case – I don’t want her to hear me upset.’

‘It must be so hard, with a little one, to protect them.’

She takes a deep breath. ‘Zac told me who you are. Do you know, he wouldn’t even speak your name before? I thought – I imagined I’d hate you. But you’re just like me. Another of his victims. He might have smothered you too. He might have smothered me. How can I resent Jane for sleeping with him, when she suffered as she did? We were friends once, you know. Good friends. Am I an idiot?’

I shake my head. ‘Of course not. I’m so sorry, Eliza.’ And though I truly am sorry, I’m not sure exactly what I am apologising for. Is it that I will somehow take my child back, and leave Eliza heartbroken? That the thought of Eliza losing a child she clearly loves makes me feel sick in the pit of my stomach, despite the fact that she may have done this very thing to me? That I cannot decide whether she is innocent in all of this, perhaps believing she has adopted Alice legitimately, or if she has conspired with Zac to steal my baby? That I don’t understand why she has stayed with Zac if she sees herself as a victim? That beneath my gentle expression, I am anything but?

‘Were you going to tell me who you are?’ she says.

‘Yes, though I’d been wondering if you already knew.’

She shakes her head. ‘No. No idea until he told me yesterday. I would have said.’

Again, I’m struck by the thought that if Eliza is lying she is the best actress I’ve ever seen, and she would definitely pass a final interview with Maxine. ‘That’s what I thought. I’m not sure which of us was more terrified when he came home early on Friday.’

She puffs out a sad half-laugh. ‘I don’t even know what to call you. Helen or Holly?’

‘Whichever you prefer.’

‘“A rose by any other name . . .”’ She puts out her hand and I clasp it in mine. It is clammy. ‘We must help each other. You and I seem to be the only surviving members of a horrible club.’ Eliza turns away to unlock the front door. ‘I need to check on Alice.’