He chewed at the inside of his lip and Pip waited, her heart starting to pound again. Had something gone wrong at work? Was she going to be in trouble when she got back?

‘The thing is . . .’ he continued. Another pause. He ran his hand through his dark hair. ‘Shit, this is hard.’

‘What’s hard?’ she asked. ‘What’s the matter? Is there something wrong? Are you ill?’

‘It’s not that,’ he said.

Pip was at a loss now. There was nothing she could think of that would justify this nervousness.

‘Whatever it is, Dom, I’m sure we can sort it out,’ she said softly.

He swallowed hard.

‘I think we should split up,’ he said.

His words hit Pip like a spray of bullets, but she couldn’t tell which part of her was bleeding.

‘I know you’re struggling with everything and the timing is crap but it’s just not working out for me. It wasn’t working before you . . .’

Before I killed a child and had a nervous breakdown, she thought, but could not say out loud.

‘But—’ she began, but he cut across her.

‘I’m sorry. I don’t want to hurt you, Rose,’ he said. He couldn’t meet her eye and seemed to be repeating the speech he must have pre-prepared. Pip listened, hearing his words but not believing them. ‘I truly don’t,’ he said, ‘but I can’t carry on like this. Who knows how long it will be before you’re back to normal? And it’s not fair on either of us to let things drag on, to let you think that everything is fine when it isn’t.’

‘But Dom . . .’ Pip put her hand out to touch his cheek, as if by making that physical connection she could stop this chasm opening up between them, but Dominic pushed it away, his action gentle but firm.

He got to his feet. ‘So that’s why I came up here. I wanted to tell you face to face rather than over the phone.’

For a moment he looked as if he was expecting to be congratulated for his noble behaviour, but when she didn’t speak, he added, ‘But now I should go. I’m sorry, Rose. It’s been fun but I think we’re at the end of the line. We both need to move on and get on with our lives.’

Pip couldn’t move. Her mouth fell open but no words came. She felt numb, but then she always felt numb these days. She’d felt numb ever since the accident.

Maybe she always would.

She tried to summon a response of some sort, but all she could think of were the practicalities. He couldn’t leave her. He was all she had left, the only thing connecting her with her other life, her real life. If he walked out now, then she would be trapped in this new, fake world forever. She searched inside for the emotional response that she knew was expected of her, but there was nothing there – just a void.