‘I know what I did,’ she said. ‘I want to make sure you do. So? How did you know?’

He turned to the shelves and held his hand up to her books.

‘You wrote it all in these,’ he said. ‘In your books. As you well know. You wrote it all in your books, so I would know every detail. I suspected it as soon as I read the first one.’

‘Suspected what, exactly?’ Her mouth was dry, and the words came out softly.

‘How unhappy you were.’ He leaned forward, his eyes wide. ‘But more than that, I understood the true message of the book.’ He inhaled, his nostrils flared, as though he was about to taste a fine, vintage wine. ‘And then you did not change your name. You remember that conversation with your publisher? We discussed publishing as Annabelle Westbrook, given you were engaged, but you chose to stay Annabelle Anderson. That was you telling me that what was in them was the true you. It was a relief, Annabelle. More than that. A vindication. I had suspected it all along, but it was a wonderful day when it was confirmed.’

She could see that what he was saying had an internal logic. If you took all the evidence he had amassed and looked at it the way he was looking at it, his conclusion made sense. He had built the entire edifice piece by piece.

The problem was that the foundations were entirely rotten.

‘When what was confirmed?’ she murmured.

‘I’m glad you’re testing me,’ he said. ‘It’s proof that you are as serious about this as I am. I can tell you I was glad to finally find out that you loved me. That you had always loved me, but hadn’t realized it.’ He smiled. ‘And that you needed my help.’

She couldn’t think of any response, so she just watched him.

He stepped towards the desk and picked up the champagne bottle. ‘This can wait. I have to go now. Trust me – I know you’ll understand – I want nothing more than to spend the day with you, but duty calls. I’m going into the office. They’ll notice if I don’t show up, and I can’t risk calling any attention to myself by doing anything out of the ordinary. Not now. Not when they’re looking. They’ll stop soon enough, and then we can do whatever we want, but until then I’m afraid I have to be careful!’

She watched him leave the room and heard the click of the lock, then closed her eyes.

This – and she would not have thought such a thing was possible a few minutes earlier – was worse than she had thought.

2

Annabelle looked at the door, then the lake, and then the plastic champagne flutes.