‘I’m just thinking about Beth,’ she’d argued. ‘Is it too much for her to be burdened with? Corinne is obviously grieving. God knows what kind of emotional turbulence is going on inside her.’

‘It’s a good lesson for Beth. For both of them,’ Mark reasoned. ‘Teenagers are so inward-looking, self-centred. It won’t do her any harm to think about her friend. And besides,’ he went on, ‘although she doesn’t show it, Beth must be grieving for Melissa. A closeness like theirs doesn’t just disappear without a trace. Maybe, with Corinne here, Beth might be able to address those feelings of sadness and loss, instead of just burying them.’

Abi listened to this argument with scepticism, but said nothing.

Valentina had told Abi that she could not cope, but she hadn’t been explicit about what exactly in Corinne’s behaviour she had found impossible to deal with. When Abi had gently raised a concern about this, Mark had waved it away, putting it down to the overwhelming nature of Val’s own grief, and the obvious trickiness in the relationship between mother and daughter.

‘They don’t get on with each other,’ he’d remarked. ‘It’ll be easier for Corinne once she’s here. She’s different with us.’

Abi hoped rather than believed this would be the case, but she hadn’t pushed it. The truth was also that Abi shied away now from any disagreements with her husband, not wanting to upset the delicate equilibrium that existed between them, not until what he had said in France had been safely excised from their marriage.

Still, she couldn’t help thinking, as the car hurtled along the M50, how different it had been a few months ago when they had first brought Corinne home. What she recalled of that journey was laughter erupting in the backseat, the sounds of animated chatter between the two girls. There had been a gracelessness to Corinne’s eagerness at the time that Abi had found vaguely annoying, but now she found herself straining towards some kind of communication, anything to break the silence.

Turning to Eva, Abi remarked:

‘You were out late last night.’

Eva kept her eyes on the road. ‘I was just hanging out with some friends.’

‘Were you at Alicia’s?’

‘No. Alicia wasn’t there.’

Something careful and measured in the way she said this made Abi pay attention.

‘Actually,’ Eva said, clearing her throat, ‘Alicia has a new boyfriend.’

‘What happened to Josh?’

‘They split up.’

‘So, who’s the new man?’

‘It’s Callum. Callum Ferguson.’

She’d kept her voice light, but Abi picked up the grace note of uneasiness there. She’d thought for some time that perhaps there was something between her daughter and the Fergusons’ boy, and wondered now if Eva was feeling hurt, jealous.

‘Well, we’ll see how long that lasts,’ Abi offered.

‘What do you mean?’