His door opened. ‘Hi,’ his dad whispered. ‘You awake?’

‘The phone woke me.’

‘Oh. That was Craig. I was going to let you sleep.’

‘I heard your conversation. What’s happened?’

His dad sat on his bed. ‘He talked to Lindsey. He and Sue didn’t think it was a good idea to keep the baby, so they tried to discuss that with her, but she refused to countenance it.’

He took a deep breath.

‘He said they told her they thought part of the reason she wanted the baby was to keep you and her together, so they explained what I’d said, about you not being under any obligation to do that, unless you wanted to.’

He squeezed Matt’s shoulder. ‘He said that she got very worked up and had a kind of fit. She was having trouble breathing, so they decided to take her to hospital. She didn’t want to go, but they insisted.’

He shook his head. ‘In the car she calmed down and said she didn’t need to go to the hospital, but Sue wanted to take her anyway. She was worried she would have another fit, and she was worried about the baby. So Lindsey owned up.’

‘What do you mean, “owned up”?’

‘There’s no baby.’

‘She lost it?’ Matt said.

‘No. There was never any baby. She made it up. She told them you’d broken up with her after you went to Birmingham and she was worried she’d lost you, so she made it up. She knew a doctor would figure it out, so she told them the truth.’

‘There’s no baby?’ He felt two stone lighter, like he was floating above his bed. This was over. Tomorrow he could go back to Birmingham and get on with his life.

‘Craig and Sue are very upset. They want to talk to you tomorrow morning.’

Matt felt bad for them. For Lindsey, too. But he was also angry. There was no guarantee he could pick up where he had left off with Annabelle.

‘I don’t know. I don’t want to talk to Lindsey.’

‘I understand that. They’ll come here. And then I’ll drive you to Birmingham and we can forget this whole sorry mess ever happened.’

6

He was woken by a knock on the door.

‘Lindsey’s mum and dad will be here in half an hour,’ his mum said. ‘And then we’ll drive you back.’

He got out of bed and packed his bag, then went downstairs. He was finishing his breakfast when the doorbell rang.

His dad answered the door and brought Craig and Sue into the kitchen. They were unsmiling, their faces lined and tired.

‘Hi,’ Matt said.

‘Hi, Matt,’ Sue said. She looked close to tears. ‘We just wanted to say sorry. From us. Lindsey can do her own apologizing.’ The words were rushed, as though they had been rehearsed.