‘I’m sorry Aisha.’

It had taken less than two minutes for Jason to deliver the words that would change our lives forever. For a moment I sat there, glued to the bench, feeling numb. I couldn’t look at him, so I put my head in my hands and desperately tried to collect my thoughts, wrap my mind around this shocking revelation. I wanted this to be a dream.

When I did steal a look at him I felt nauseous. He already looked different, unfamiliar.

Jason’s eyes were fixed on a piece of hard gum on the floor. He stared and stared.

An anger simmered inside of me.

‘You seriously think you’re Albie’s father?’ I asked pointedly, barely believing the words coming out of my mouth.

‘I don’t know. I think there’s only a slim chance. But she’s a psycho Aisha, I don’t know what she’s trying to do – to me, to us. I’m petrified. She’s not right in the head. I couldn’t handle it any more – the guilt was killing me, killing our family. I realize this is a huge thing to tell you. I’m so sorry.’ He turned to look at me. ‘Are you okay?’

Was he having a laugh? Of course I wasn’t ‘okay’. When I failed to reply he tentatively put his hand on my shoulder. I recoiled. I didn’t know him any more and I certainly didn’t want him to touch me. It felt as though a crushing weight had descended on me.

My brain was still struggling to compute what I had been told. ‘But Lucy told me she and Oscar went through IVF,’ I said. ‘Was she feeding me all of these lies to cover up your torrid affair?’

‘It wasn’t an affair. It was one night of insanity, I promise you,’ Jason said. ‘And she did have IVF, the…’ He paused. ‘The thing with us happened the night before.’

‘I can’t believe you’d do this to me – to us,’ I said. ‘How long have you known her for?’

‘We dated at university, in the first year and only for a couple of terms.’

That made her comment about Bristol University when we were in the pub fall into place, plus her interest in the Bristol FC photo in our flat. The fact she had been there, in our home, stalking our photos, made me feel sick. I did vaguely recall him mentioning a Lucy when we had talked about past lovers over the years, but I’d never needed to give her any real thought.

‘But she got pregnant,’ he continued. ‘She went home and had an abortion. She thought I didn’t know, but one of her friends told me. I didn’t know what to do – we were only 19. We split up and that was it. Life completely moved on.’

‘Moved on until you found yourself in bed with her again?’

‘Bumping into her, after all that time, it caught me in a weak moment. I thought the past had been laid to rest – it had for me, but clearly not for her. When I told her I had known about the abortion, she took it badly.’