‘Well, what was there to say?’ she said defensively. ‘He was as stunned as I was. I didn’t want to talk to him. It had happened before we knew . . .’ She dropped her face in her hands. ‘God, how could I lose myself like that?’

‘Hate sex,’ Matty said coolly. ‘It’s pretty much the best there is. Any girl can lose her shit over a guy she despises. There’s nothing like it.’

Clover and Johnny’s heads whipped up in surprise.

‘What?’ Matty shrugged. ‘I had three months of the best sex of my life making and breaking up with my ex.’

Johnny stood up and walked over to Clover, giving her a hug. She was near tears. ‘Look, cut yourself some slack. You said it yourself, it was a release, right? You’ve both been through a lot, what with the fight and everything. I dunno – it could have been some twisted moment of shared connection; a bit of PTSD? Strong emotions can slide into something else sometimes. Like you said, you could just as easily have been punching each other instead.’

‘But I’ve betrayed Cory . . . and Mia! What do I tell her? How can I say that I ruined everything in a moment of madness?’

‘Nothing’s ruined.’ He rolled his eyes. ‘Well, so long as Liam doesn’t get to hear about it.’

Clover stared at him. He still didn’t know that there was no Liam. She felt another stab of longing for her flat; bought with her inheritance, it had given her a home when she’d lost her family. If this film didn’t get made and find a distributor, there was no way she could pay back the remortgage. She would lose her home, their office . . . But how could she possibly make the film now?

Clover stiffened suddenly. ‘. . . Oh god.’

‘What?’ Johnny asked.

A terrible thought was running through her mind. ‘What if . . . that was the plan?’

‘What plan?’

‘To get me to walk away. Make it impossible for me to continue.’

He frowned. ‘You mean . . . he seduced you on purpose?’

There was a long silence as they all thought it through.

‘He couldn’t have planned it, though,’ Matty argued. ‘He didn’t know you were going to find him in the pool like that and think he’d drowned!’

‘No,’ Johnny agreed. ‘But it might have crossed his mind that sleeping with her – somehow, at some point – was an option; a tactic to throw her off her game and get the upper hand? It makes her position fairly untenable.’