Then I saw her. It was Ruby. Tom’s ex-wife. Harry’s ex-lover. Hopefully. I’d thought it would be someone else, thought she’d moved out. I recognized her from the airport, where she was kissing my husband, the night I slept with her husband. She walked downstairs, her face pale and determined. She looked shocked, but she didn’t look upset. She crouched beside him and felt for his pulse, in his wrist first, then on the side of his neck. It was clear she hadn’t a clue what she was doing.

And as she knelt there, doing her amateur diagnosis, my first thought was: I could ruin your life, Ruby Dean. Only you and I know what happened just now, and who would believe you? Tom’s a bully and you’re a cheat. Now he’s unconscious at the bottom of your stairs. Who would believe that was an accident?

Ruby’s whole body trembled as she tried to find a pulse. With a shock I saw how thin she was now, much thinner than when I saw her at the airport with Harry, and how scared she looked as she touched Tom, as though he’d rear up and hit her. I winced. I’d seen myself as Tom’s victim; I hadn’t realized she was, too. I should have known. I really should have known.

When I looked at Ruby and Tom together, my overwhelming feeling was of relief that all this had ended. For a moment I didn’t know whether to turn Ruby in and hope she spent the rest of her days in solitary confinement, or to shake her hand. And then I felt the strangest sensation, as though my baby was making its presence felt. It was still too small for me to feel movements, but in that split second when I held Ruby’s future in my hands, I knew I needed to do the right thing. It was time for this war to end.

As I moved to get a better view, she looked up into the mirror that was on the hallway wall. She saw my face through the glass and she jerked back.

I tapped on the window.

CHAPTER 70

Ruby

Let me in,” she said, as though we were friends. As though this was a preplanned visit for a glass of wine or a book group, maybe. This was my lover’s wife and she’d tracked me down!

I didn’t know what to do. I backed away and flattened myself against the wall, away from Tom and away from her.

She tapped again.

“Ruby, it’s me. Emma.”

I knew who she was, all right. That was why I wasn’t going to let her in.

“Let me in. I want to help you.”

I stared at her through the glass. Help me?

She nodded. “Hurry!”