Connie had waved off her friend with trepidation, clutching the house keys, her head spinning with instructions about closing the security grilles on her bedroom window in the half-basement, bin days, what and when to feed Monty, the fact that the gas hob no longer lit automatically, and how to regulate the central heating. Connie had written it all down as soon as she closed the front door, knowing she’d otherwise forget.

Now, waking to an empty house for yet another long and lonely day, she felt desolate. In the time since she’d left home, the only person she’d properly spoken to, apart from Tessa, was Neil. There had been complete radio silence from the rest of her family. Caitlin had not rung back – even to berate her mother. Connie had left countless messages, first apologetic, then asking to talk, then, when no response was forthcoming, just Love you xxx

Devan, on the many, many occasions that Connie had called – two or three times daily at first, heart in her mouth – had not picked up, and not returned a single call, although she’d left message after message asking him politely if he would please do so. Unlike with her daughter, she did not apologize to Devan again. She just wanted to talk to him directly, to try to explain. She wanted to apologize to a living person, not a machine.

‘He’s probably licking his wounds,’ Neil said, the last time they’d spoken. ‘Give him time, Con.’

‘How much time, though?’ she’d cried. ‘I feel every day that goes by, he gets further and further away from me. Suppose he just point-blank refuses to speak to me ever again?’ She stopped to catch her breath, overwhelmed by the thought. ‘Help me out, Neil, please. Tell me what I should do.’ Before he’d had a chance to respond, she rushed on: ‘Have you seen him? How is he? Do you think he’ll ever forgive me?’

‘Whoa, Connie, slow down. I haven’t seen him, but Brooks bumped into him in the pub. He was with Bill. Brooks said he seemed perfectly normal, smiling and friendly, as if nothing had happened.’

Typical Devan, Connie thought, burying it all behind a public face, but her heart constricted at the thought of him pretending so hard. Jill had rung Connie a few times, but she hadn’t taken the calls, just texted back to say she would be in touch, although she’d decided it would be better if she wasn’t. Bill was Devan’s best friend. Jill would only be compromised if she got involved with Connie’s side of the story.

‘And Jared?’ she asked, holding her breath in trepidation.