Beth’s chest relaxes just enough for her heart to start beating again. But she still doesn’t like the idea of her image plastered all over social media. She opens her WhatsApp and clicks on Saskia’s face, half hidden behind a big glass of Aperol Spritz. TAKE THE POST DOWN, she types, hoping the capital letters will show Saskia how unhappy she is, and waits for the two ticks to turn blue.

‘And has she?’ Simon asks as he pops open a bottle of Cremant, their staple diet on a Saturday night when they don’t have plans. Beth isn’t in the mood really, but it’s always easier to pretend. ‘Taken it down?’ he continues.

Beth sighs and takes a glass from Simon’s outstretched hand. ‘Not yet. She responded to my message saying that she’d delete the post as soon as she got chance. But that was ten hours and about eight hundred views ago, and the woman whose phone is superglued to her hand doesn’t seem to have found an opportunity.’

‘Maybe it’s not such a bad thing,’ Simon offers cautiously. ‘Getting some public recognition.’ He shakes his head. ‘I mean, it was such a brave thing to do, in the dark like that; I can hardly get my head around it.’

‘Why not? Do you not think I’m the caring type?’ Beth pushes, exasperated, but she shouldn’t take her frustrations out on Simon. He’s the perfect husband; she needs to remind herself of that.

‘What? No! Of course you are. I just mean …’ Simon’s voice trails away. He picks up his phone and looks at the screen. In other marriages, this would be cause for an argument: important conversation interrupted by a damn device. But Beth knows it’s different for Simon. His phone checking is a tick that he’s developed over years of being at the beck and call of even richer, and considerably more arrogant, men than him. And now he uses the habit when he needs a moment to think. He places it back down. ‘I suppose I see you putting the girls first, me a close second, all the time. Creating this perfect life for us. To step away from that, put yourself in potential danger, I guess it’s an extra quality I didn’t know you had.’