‘Good. I’m on my way. I can help with this.’

‘No,’ she said. ‘There’s no need. I’m just glad of someone to talk to. See if I’m insane for doing this.’

‘Doing what?’

‘There’s only one choice.’

‘No!’ Guy said. ‘You can’t.’

‘If I don’t, the kids are dead and then I’ll have to kill myself. This way they’ll be alive. It might be a terrible choice, but that’s the way choices work, right? You take the least worst one, however bad.’

‘Look,’ Guy said, ‘there has to be another way!’

‘I don’t think there is. I need the kids to be safe, and this is the only way I can get that. I’ll deal with whatever comes afterwards.’

‘I’m coming to your house,’ he said. ‘And that’s final.’

‘No. I want to spend this time with Matt.’

There was a long silence. ‘Fine,’ he said. ‘But call if you need anything. OK?’

‘I will.’ She put the phone down and went inside. Matt was standing by the fridge, pouring milk into a cup of tea.

‘Who was that?’ he said.

‘Guy. I’ve been invited to a literary festival in May. I was telling him it isn’t an option.’

‘So you’ve made up your mind, then?’ Matt said. ‘You’re going to do it?’

‘I don’t see another way.’

‘Me neither,’ Matt said. ‘But I don’t think it has to end there. I’ve got an idea.’

The clock is ticking. That fool of a husband will be desperate, searching for some way to keep his wife safe.

There is no way. Because the choice is hers and there is no doubt what she will choose. She will come to me. I have given her everything she needs.

She will be able to say – truthfully – that this is what any mother would have done in the circumstances.

Well, maybe not any. Not mine. Mine would have done nothing. That’s what she did when I asked her for help.

She could have chosen self-sacrifice. She chose to leave me to my fate.

But the overwhelming majority of mothers would choose their children.

Not Annabelle Westbrook, though, she is like my mother. Her children are a burden; pretending to love them is a chore. Only I know that, which is why I am doing this for her.

Anyway, in the eyes of the world, she does the honourable thing. Such an act of self-sacrifice! A martyr to motherhood! An inspiration to us all.

When the story comes out, she will be a hero.

And she will have what she has wanted all along.

How could she have had it otherwise? She could not leave her family. She would never truly get away from them. She was trapped.

But now I have created the one situation in which she can leave them and remain free of any guilt or blame.