‘That’s what Eric’s like. Just like a cuckoo chick, he makes sure he hatches a few days before the others so he’s a little bit bigger. But no one notices. Not until he’s pushed all the other baby birds out of the nest, and what’s the point then?’

Fabian nodded. ‘Okay, so that’s what you wanted to tell me?’

Stjärnström nodded.

‘All right, then. Thanks for that.’ Fabian shook the man’s hand and climbed into the driver’s seat. He was already five minutes late, and it would take him at least fifteen minutes to get to the hospital to receive his scolding from Flätan.

He put the key in the ignition, turned it and reached for the door to close it. But Stjärnström blocked him. ‘I’m sorry, if you could just move a little, so I can—’

‘For me, he crossed the line when he started flirting with my wife.’

‘Yeah, that doesn’t sound great. But you’ll have to excuse me, I’m running late.’

‘And you should know that Eric doesn’t leave it at a few stolen looks.’ Stjärnström pressed on without paying any attention to Fabian’s obvious need to leave. ‘Instead, it became increasingly open, as if I wasn’t in the same room, or his own wife for that matter. At the same time, he started hinting to me that I’d gained weight and that I never bought my beautiful wife flowers and was taking her for granted.’ He shook his head. ‘The only thing I could do was laugh it off and raise my glass to him. I mean, you don’t want to spoil the mood when you’ve been invited over for dinner and everything.’

‘No, I suppose you don’t.’ Fabian realized Stjärnström wasn’t going to move until he was good and ready, so he killed the engine.

‘The problem was, Emilie took it to heart. She ate up all that smarm of his, and in just a few months, he’d managed to make her look at him the way I’ve wished she would look at me for so many years.’

‘Have you tried to talk to him and tell him what it’s like for you? Try to make him see that his behaviour is out of line?’