And as there were no other photos of him – or Beth’s parents – around the house, it seems like Beth is hiding her whole past from her new family. Kat can’t imagine how tough that must be, although the strips of diazepam in Beth’s boot give her some idea. But she’s not surprised. She remembers how ashamed Ellie was about growing up poor, her mum working two cleaning jobs. Kat pushes the heels of her hands into her eye sockets. But it’s not Beth’s hidden past that’s threatening to break her now.

It’s him. That stupid boy who thinks he’s a man. Who believes he can hassle a woman, traumatise an innocent child, and not suffer any repercussions. Kat tried to warn him off, and he seemed scared at the time; she thought she’d done enough. But her meddling seems to have made him more determined to punish Beth. So that’s something else she needs to make amends for. When Beth finally came round after fainting in her hallway – and petrifying her children, Ava for the second time in a day – she’d accepted Simon’s demand to call the police. Kat knows how difficult that must have been, for Beth to trust the police after what they did to her – that she’s kept the newspaper article about Eddie’s death for all these years is testament to how much it still hurts. She must have felt completely trapped into a corner.

Simon first tried to speak with the detective who interviewed Beth that night, DC Stone, but it had gone through to voicemail. Kat had heard the message he left – cold, angry, with a whiff of privileged condescension. She can’t imagine that approach is going to get him very far. He eventually got through to someone when he phoned 101, but from the half of the conversation Kat heard, it didn’t sound like he got the urgent response he was expecting from them either. He just got even more irate and then stormed off into his study when he ended the call, mumbling about finding a lawyer to sort a restraining order. Beth had looked embarrassed – although whether that was due to his behaviour, or her fainting in the first place, Kat wasn’t sure.