‘You should have told me,’ I seethe. ‘You have no idea what you’ve done.’

‘What I’ve done?’ he exclaims. ‘She’s your sister and yes, she may have been in a bad place for a while, but I made sure that she was well out of that before agreeing to anything. Did you know she’s been to rehab?’

‘You just don’t get it, do you?’ I yell. ‘I think she’s got something to do with Jacob, and is setting me up for it.’

Leon shakes his head vehemently. ‘You’re not thinking straight,’ he says. ‘Why would she do that? What have you ever done to her to warrant that kind of revenge?’

‘I let her go,’ I wail.

‘You had no other choice,’ he says, standing up and coming towards me. ‘You were a child yourself.’

‘But she needed me,’ I cry, holding my hand up to warn him off coming any nearer. ‘And I wasn’t there.’

‘She’s got nothing to do with Jacob,’ he says.

‘How do you know?’

‘Because I’ve just had a call from his wife,’ he says.

I narrow my eyes as I watch him watching me. ‘Vanessa?’ I ask needlessly.

He nods.

‘Well, why?’ I ask, as all the guilty parties and their motivations merge into one in my head. ‘What did she want? How did she get your number?’

He shrugs at the litany of questions. ‘It seems that she’s in exactly the same position as me.’

‘Meaning?’ I ask, my patience too thin to be playing mind games.

‘Meaning, we both seemingly have unfaithful partners.’

‘What?’ I rasp.

‘Look, I’m trying really hard to believe you but everyone and everything is telling me the same story – that you two are having an affair.’

‘I swear I’m telling you the truth.’

He looks like he wants to come to me, but he stops himself. ‘You have to understand. You’ve been holding back ever since this whole thing started. I’m being drip-fed information on a need-to-know-basis.’

I can’t disagree with him on that.

‘So until I’m sure you’ve told me everything, I’m going to reserve judgement.’

I look at him, aghast. ‘You’re supposed to be my husband,’ I say.

‘And you’re supposed to be my wife,’ he bats back.

‘What do you want me to do?’ I cry.

‘I want you to be honest,’ he says. ‘About everything.’

‘I’ve told you all there is to know,’ I say.

‘So you’re sticking with the story that you didn’t send me that text last night?’

‘It’s not a story, it’s the truth. You must be able to tell it wasn’t sent from my phone.’

‘No, it wasn’t,’ he says resignedly.

‘Well, there you go then.’

‘But that doesn’t mean you didn’t send it from the burner phone,’ he says, looking me in the eye, his gaze unwavering.