‘Mia, what exactly are you telling me? What do you know?’ Her eyes were pinned to the lonely figure on the bank of the lake, standing now, staring out at the moonscape.

There was a long silence, then a distant sniff. ‘. . . I’ve been keeping up with the news. I’ve seen what Amy’s said about Kit beating her.’ She gave a scornful laugh. ‘She always was a scheming bitch. Never liked me because she knew I could see right through her little games.’

Clover swallowed. ‘You don’t believe her allegations?’

‘They’re bullshit!’ Mia scoffed. ‘Anyone who knows Kit knows he’d never hit a woman. Not after everything that happened with his father. But he’s letting her get away with it because . . . well, he’s our guardian angel, right? Silence, in this case, is golden. Better this than the truth.’

Another quiet spell settled over them, like a fresh sheet thrown over a bed. Clover didn’t break the spell with words. She could imagine Mia picking the blades of grass and winding them between her fingers as she always used to do, when she was thinking on things.

‘. . . Cory loved us, I know that. He just wanted that title too badly, that was the problem. To finally be the best . . . He wanted it too much and he lost sight of himself.’ Mia tutted sadly. ‘The rivalry had gotten out of hand; they’d gone from being friends to bitterest enemies. It was personal and it was getting worse and worse with every comp . . . It didn’t matter what I said to him, that we didn’t care about the title, we didn’t care about being rich. We just wanted him . . . But Cory never had Kit’s self-belief. He didn’t believe he could do it by winning, only by Kit losing . . .’ There was a long pause. ‘I think he thought she was the only way to throw Kit off his game, the only way to hurt him – even if it meant betraying me.’

It was the confirmation she had dreaded. Clover closed her eyes, Kit’s own words echoing in her head: He hated me even more than he loved his own family.

Neither of them spoke for several moments.

‘Do you think Kit found them together?’ Clover’s voice was almost a whisper.

‘I’m sure that would have been the idea . . . just before the final, to get Kit shaken up.’ Mia’s voice was flat. Toneless.

Clover felt sick at the thought of what it must have been like for him, walking in on them – but the plan had backfired. Instead of being broken, Kit had been angry. He knew how to translate pain into competitive edge. It was what made him a winner.

‘But why would Amy have done it? She and Kit were engaged; he had rescued her from an abusive relationship—’