‘But he hadn’t drowned. And instead he was furious with me. He was . . .’ She frowned. ‘Actually I still don’t know what he was doing.’ She looked back at them both. ‘He really looked dead.’

Matty waved a hand dismissively. ‘Fine. Go on.’

‘Well then he started shouting at me. Said, didn’t I think it was a shame that he wasn’t dead? That I thought he deserved to be dead.’ She looked back at them both. ‘He was so . . .’

They waited for her to supply the word.

‘So mad?’ Matty prodded her.

‘No. So sad. He sounded broken.’

Neither Johnny nor Matty stirred as she sank back into the memory of it. She could still see him forcing back the emotion; the forward set of his jaw, the heaviness of his brow . . . It had been a side to him she’d never seen. A side he’d hidden again in the very next breath.

She frowned. ‘But then he . . . switched it onto me and started saying I hated him. That he knew I did and I had to say it. I had to say it. He just kept on, forcing me to just admit it. And the thing was, I couldn’t lie because I could see that he knew the truth. Because I do hate him. I hate him so much. I hate everything he did to Cory and everything we’ve seen he is. I hate him almost more than I can bear.’ She looked away, staring into space. ‘And saying it to him . . . finally being honest at last after all these lies and this . . .’ Her hands gestured hopelessly at her bruised face. ‘It felt like a sort of release. We could just as easily have been punching each other.’ She looked back at her friends. ‘I hate him and he hates me.’

Her voice trailed off and no one spoke for several minutes. Johnny dropped his face in his hands and gave an exhausted sigh. Matty sank onto the bed and let her head hang, her elbows on her knees.

‘Right, well . . .’ Johnny said finally. His voice was barely audible, all of them trying to take in the afternoon’s unexpected twist.

‘I’m so sorry,’ Clover whispered.

Johnny sighed again. ‘I just didn’t see this coming.’

‘Nor did I! You have to believe that.’

He looked up at her. ‘. . . So how did you leave it with him?’

‘Huh?’

‘Well, was it all hearts and flowers? I take it from the way we just found you that he’s not taking you for dinner anytime soon?’

Clover looked away, remembering his lips on her shoulder, his breath in her hair. The moment of perfect stillness immediately afterwards, just the hammering of their hearts, one against the other as madness gave way to sense. ‘We didn’t say anything. He just left.’

‘Bastard,’ Matty breathed.