‘Mum? Where are you? What’s going on?’ Caitlin sounded panicky, which made Connie feel guilty all over again. ‘I got this garbled call from Dad late last night, but I couldn’t work out what the hell he was on about … except that you’d apparently gone off somewhere.’ Her daughter gave a short laugh. ‘He was hammered, so I’m sure it’s all nonsense. But you know me, I hardly slept a wink.’

‘I’m so sorry,’ Connie said, wishing that Devan had made sense, that Caitlin already knew, that she didn’t have to be the one to break the dreadful news.

‘Mum?’ Caitlin’s voice was suddenly fearful.

Taking a deep breath, Connie filled her daughter in, her calm articulacy surprising her. She thought she must come across almost as cold.

The silence at the other end was profound. Connie could picture her daughter’s face, shocked and disbelieving, unable to find any words with which to respond. But it was the wave preparing to break and she braced herself.

‘You … cheated on Dad?’ She sounded bemused. After a long pause she asked, ‘Who with?’

‘It’s a long story …’ Which Connie went on to tell in as sparse detail as possible.

‘Oh, my God.’ She heard Caitlin let out a sharp breath when she finished. There was a long pause, then simply, ‘I don’t know what to say.’

Connie didn’t know what to say, either. She knew it would be a mistake to try to justify her behaviour in light of her problems with Devan at the time. And she could never explain the sexual obsession Jared had represented. Not to her daughter, not to Devan, not even to herself.

‘So, this man’s a nutter, a total fucking stalker,’ Caitlin was saying. ‘Christ, poor Dad. That’s so cruel.’ A pause.

Connie waited. The wave had still not vented its true fury.

‘Why didn’t you stop him, Mum?’ Caitlin demanded, her voice now steely. ‘Why did you let this bastard move in and make friends with Dad? That’s so fucking shitty.’

‘I tried, sweetheart. I really did. I did everything in my power to get him to leave.’

But Caitlin wasn’t listening. ‘You should have made him, Mum. What the hell were you thinking?’ She drew in an angry breath. ‘You could at least have warned Dad. Not let this jerk cosy up to him. I mean, who does that?’

‘I thought he’d go away.’

Connie heard Bash’s voice in the background, Caitlin tempering her anger as she greeted her son, then Ash’s concerned tones. Ash, too, she thought miserably.

‘Listen, I’ve got to go,’ Caitlin said. ‘Talk later.’

Connie sat clutching her silent phone, realizing her hand was shaking. Will we?