He sighs, breathing heavily down the phone. ‘I don’t know what’s going on here, but I think it’s best if we take some time out.’

‘What?’ I say, almost laughing. ‘You want us to take a break?’

‘I don’t know what I want, but I can’t be with you while all this is going on.’

‘So just when I need you most, you do a midnight flit?’ I say, unable to believe what I’m hearing.

‘It doesn’t sound like it’s me you’re in need of.’

‘OK, this is crazy,’ I shriek. ‘You’re being completely insane.’

‘Naomi, you sent me the text,’ he says. ‘Instead of him.’

‘What fucking text?’ I yell, losing my patience with this ridiculous conversation.

‘Hang on,’ he says. The fan noise that made him sound as if he was in a wind tunnel suddenly disappears.

His voice comes back on the line.

‘“Hi, it’s me”,’ he says. ‘“I haven’t told Leon yet, but I will, I promise. Just give me a couple more days and we’ll be together. Love you more than you’ll ever know. N.”’ He adds, ‘“Kiss kiss”,’ with such vitriol that I can’t possibly relate him to being the man I’ve loved for seventeen years.

I try to speak but my tongue feels too big for my mouth.

‘So, that’s it?’ he barks. ‘You’ve got nothing to say.’

‘Do you honestly believe that I wrote that text?’ I croak.

‘Well, it all seems to add up, doesn’t it? You’re just biding your time, playing some kind of weird game with me, waiting for the right moment when you can be together.’

‘I can’t believe you’d even think I was capable of that,’ I gasp. ‘What the hell has happened to us?’

‘I think we need some space,’ he says, dismissing me.

The line goes dead and I’m left looking at my phone in disbelief. I’d gone to bed last night daring to believe that when we woke up, we’d work together to get to the bottom of whatever’s going on. Now, I’m alone. And I can’t even be sure whether or not, despite his protestations, Leon is somehow involved.

I go to my emails to see if the video has been sent as an unwelcome attachment. There’s nothing showing in my inbox and I’m consumed with relief as I check my sent items, pathetically grateful that it hasn’t been sent to everyone in my contacts. Though the very next second, I’m faced with the unnerving reality that whoever’s behind this has been in my home and downloaded it onto my laptop.