‘When we confronted him, he said he hadn’t thought that far ahead. That Casey had got the wrong end of the stick and he didn’t know how to set her straight without disappointing her. Almost like he was shifting the blame onto her. Pathetic, right?’

‘Yes. Though it’s also very him. He seems to want to keep everyone happy.’

She scoffs. ‘For as long as it suits him. It means Dan only ever planned to play at fatherhood for four weeks. I lied to Casey for years about him not knowing I was pregnant, so she wouldn’t realize he’d rejected her only days after she was born. Bad mistake on my part, because if she’d known all along that he was a pathological liar and a con man, she’d never have searched for him.’

A liar and a con man. ‘Did he con you?’

She pauses. ‘No. When we got together at Glastonbury he was really generous, and kind too. Took care of me when I took my first E and got spooked. Some guys would have taken advantage. Not Dan. He was . . . sweet.’ Angelica frowns at the memory, as though she’d forgotten he could behave decently. She shakes her head. ‘But that doesn’t cancel out everything else. I bet the fake-name stuff is the tip of the iceberg.’ She puts her plate down, the toast almost untouched.

I worry she’s going to run out of patience with me soon, so I have to take a risk. ‘Do you know anything about him going to prison?’

Angelica raises an eyebrow. ‘Oh yes. It was one of the first things he told me when I tracked him down to tell him I was pregnant.’

‘What had he done?’

‘According to him, it was no big deal. He’d been working with some other lads doing odd jobs and they overcharged. Of course when it got to court, I heard the real story. He was in a gang conning elderly people. How low can you go?’

My head throbs. ‘I can’t imagine him doing that.’

‘The guys he worked with had been doing it for years, knocking on doors telling people their roofs were about to fall in, taking enormous amounts of money for tiny repairs. Or even for doing the damage themselves. I sat in court as the poor victims gave evidence; it was heartbreaking.’

‘But you stayed with him after that?’

Angelica glowers at me. ‘Look, I was a kid who wanted to rebel against my parents, and Dan can be charming, as you well know. He convinced me that the best chance of him avoiding prison was if I played the supportive fiancée. His lawyer made a big thing of how Dan was turning over a new leaf, pointed to me, said he was determined to be a caring dad.

‘But the judge didn’t buy it. He announced the sentence and I realized I’d be giving birth alone. I sobbed for two days in the bedsit we’d rented here, but then I calmed down, made it cosy, buying things from charity shops, nesting. I’d write three times a week, and he always wrote straight back.