‘He’s probably a great liar, Ben. How do you even know this guy? Who is he?’

Ben hesitated. ‘He’s Bella’s lover.’

There was a sharp intake of breath from Charlotte, before she spoke. ‘Oh, Ben. I’m so sorry.’

Ben bit his lip and closed his eyes, trying to stop the tears. It was the kindness in her voice that did it. That, and the pity. ‘I don’t even care about that. It’s been going on for ages, anyway. But it’s what he said that’s killing me. He couldn’t possibly make up something like that, Charlie. It’s not like it’s an obvious scenario that he could invent.’

As his thinking became clearer, memories began to float to the front of his mind: how uncharacteristically flustered Peter had seemed on the day he’d first brought Bella home; how they had both disappeared for a suspiciously long time while he was supposedly showing her to the bathroom; how he had been so insistent about buying them a house. And, most of all, the darkness his death had unleashed in her.

‘It’s true,’ Ben said, his voice muffled by the tears that were streaming down his face. ‘I know it’s true, Charlie. It all makes sense now.’

There was a long pause as Charlotte absorbed what he had said. ‘Right, I’m going to come and get you. Are you at home?’ She was instantly practical, but her voice was kind and tender, making Ben cry even harder.

‘I’m at home,’ Ben sobbed. ‘I need you to take Elodie for me.’

There was a pause. ‘Take her where, Ben?’ Charlotte sounded scared.

A plan was forming in Ben’s head, but he still wasn’t entirely sure what it was. He just knew that he needed to get Elodie as far away from Bella as possible. ‘I’ll explain when you get here. Just come, Charlie. I really need you to come.’

‘OK, OK, I’m coming. Give me ten minutes. Oh, and Ben?’

Ben wiped his face with the back of his hand, wanting to get off the phone as quickly as possible. ‘Yes?’

‘Please don’t do anything until I get there.’

Chapter Thirty-Seven

I drove like a maniac from the station towards home, breaking every speed limit and cursing the ignorant limo driver, who I was convinced had deliberately taken a longer route than necessary. The palms of my hands were sweating and slid on the steering wheel, as I careered at breakneck speed around a sharp bend, almost colliding head-on with a car coming in the opposite direction. As the furious beeping of the oncoming driver’s horn receded into the distance, I took a deep, shaky breath and pressed my foot on the brake to slow down.

Ben was already home, so there was no point in rushing now, I told myself sternly. I just needed to concentrate on coming up with a plausible explanation as to where I’d been. Although I had always insisted that Ben was on Find Friends, so that I could follow his movements at all times, I was grateful now that I had made sure he wasn’t able to track me in the same way, so he wouldn’t have known that I was at Leo’s flat when I called him earlier.