‘What the hell just happened?’ I said.

Beth tried to answer but all that came out were sobs.

‘Sh-sh-she stole him.’ Her voice was back to its usual tone and volume, almost as if the strain of her anger had exhausted her.

‘Show me the phone,’ I said. ‘Show me the pictures.’

She handed me the mobile and I scrolled through the gallery. There was a folder called ‘M xxx’ comprised entirely of selfies of my wife in various states of undress. Sitting in our bath, lying on a bed, leaning over an armchair in the sitting room. Most of them completely nude, all smiling at the camera, reclining, beckoning, winking, pouting, a secret just for the two of them.

To have and to hold, from this day forward.

Scrolling through picture after picture, I felt like I was out of my own body, floating above myself, watching all of this happen to someone else. To someone else’s life. Like a spectator at someone else’s car crash of a marriage. But I wasn’t a spectator. It was my marriage. My life.

Today was the worst day of my thirty-four years, bar none.

For richer for poorer, in sickness and in health.

It felt surreal to see a woman pose like that and realise that she was my wife, in my house, putting on a show for another man. Not for me. For another woman’s husband. Pictures that were supposed to stay a secret.

To love and to cherish, till death us do part.

I was the world’s biggest sucker.

‘Has Ben got more than one phone?’

‘He has two iPhones – one for work and one for personal use. He normally keeps both with him.’ She held up the Samsung. ‘But I never saw this one before this morning.’

‘Where did you find it?’

‘I was looking for something that might help me find him. Something, anything, that gave me a clue about where he’d gone. I’d looked in all the obvious places yesterday, so this morning I went into his study. He doesn’t normally let me go in there, says it’s his “man cave”. It was in one of his desk drawers, I’d never seen it before so I switched it on.’ She wiped her eyes with a fresh tissue. ‘I found the text messages first.’

‘If it makes you feel any better, she had me fooled as well – one hundred per cent. And I’m married to her.’

‘Even last night, when she dropped Alice home from babysitting, she was all friendly and lovely and reassuring about Ben. About how he would be home soon.’ She shook her head. ‘Can’t believe I didn’t see it sooner.’

Something else occurred to me.

‘Last night, how long did Mel stay with you?’

‘What?’ Beth looked confused.

‘When she dropped Alice back after babysitting, how long did she stay at yours? She told me she stayed for cups of tea and another long chat about Ben and a nightcap.’

‘No, she just brought Alice to the door, we had a few words on the doorstep but she said she had to get back because William was running a temperature.’