Abi was not convinced of this. Yes, it was true that when they were together, there was a conspiratorial closeness and she thought back to those occasions when she’d heard the pair of them hooting with laughter in this very room. But since Corinne had withdrawn her friendship, Beth had been miserable. And then Abi’s mind flitted back to that day by the river when she’d watched the two of them in the water, caught in the dappled shade, twirling slowly, their arms draped around each other’s necks, smiling. Peaceful. Content. She knew she had beheld something beautiful.

It seemed risky to say more. Abi didn’t see how she could achieve anything further, except to send Beth off on another rant.

At the door, she looked back at Beth, who was already reaching for the mouse of her computer.

‘Will you think about giving Lisa a call?’ she asked, hopefully.

Beth glanced away from the screen and met her mother’s gaze. Clear-eyed, chastened.

‘Sure,’ she said.

But they both knew she wouldn’t.

While Beth was suffering from the withdrawal of Corinne’s attention, Eva was troubled by the increasing number of unsolicited texts and WhatsApps from the girl. Mostly, they were inane messages, recounting some small event or raging about a row with her mother. Eva never replied. In fact, since the night they’d hitched a lift back from Bruno’s house and Eva had sat in furious silence, she’d hardly spoken to Corinne beyond a few words of condolence after Guy’s death. It bothered her, the likeness drawn between Eva herself and Corinne’s sister, especially after it emerged that Anouk was locked away in some sort of asylum. Eva shuddered at the comparison Corinne made between her and this deeply troubled girl.

Once or twice, she had looked at Corinne’s Instagram account, curiosity and boredom pushing her to it. The images, she noted, had turned melancholy – a leaf floating in water; a wilted geranium, petals scattered on the ground beneath it; Guy’s reading glasses, folded and left resting on a book. None of the images were of Corinne herself. Gone was the sunny smile, the goofing around, the carefree poses. On one occasion, she’d posted a picture of Beth’s tattoo in close-up – the skin still raw beneath the ink – with the caption: ‘Courage’ beneath it. Eva had snorted with ridicule, saying: ‘Give me a break,’ even though there was no one in the room to hear her. Still, it made her uneasy – these messages that Corinne insisted on sending her, all the while she was painfully ignoring Beth.