‘So what went wrong between your parents?’ he asked, looking at a picture of her when she was just a little girl, all pigtails, dimples and happy smile. ‘Or would you prefer not to talk about it?’

‘I don’t mind,’ she said. ‘My dad cheated on my mum.’

‘Fucker.’

‘Actually, that’s not quite true. He didn’t cheat on her. He just planned on doing so.’

‘Oh, well, that’s not so bad, is it? At least he thought better of it.’

‘I don’t think it was entirely his choice. The person he was seeing … well, my father was being taken advantage of.’

‘In what way?’

‘In a financial way.’

‘Bummer.’

‘Mum found out and the marriage ended, just like that. Dad said he was just going through a mid-life crisis but, you know, there was no way back for them afterwards.’

‘They didn’t go for counselling?’

‘The thing is, he wasn’t seeing a girl. He was seeing a boy.’

‘Ah. Yes, that’s hard to come back from.’

Achilles wasn’t particularly interested in Rebecca’s family dramas but figured he should pretend that he was until he got what he wanted. He continued to glance at the other photographs and saw what appeared to be a happy family gathering of Rebecca with her parents a couple of years earlier. He frowned, narrowing his eyes as he examined it more closely. There was something in the picture that was ringing a bell with him.

‘See anyone you recognize?’ asked Rebecca.

He turned to look at her, utterly confused, then looked back to the photograph, at which point the penny finally dropped.

‘Oh fuck,’ he said.

‘That’s all you have to say?’

He stared at her, then back at the picture, then back at her.

‘Your dad,’ he said.

‘My dad.’

‘Shit.’

‘You know, I actually told you the very day we met. And you didn’t even notice. It was in that coffee shop just after you bought your new trainers. I said that my father was a chiropodist and you said that a chiropodist had bought you a pair of Bang & Olufsen headphones.’

‘I did say that,’ he said, remembering the conversation.

‘And I asked you why he bought them for you, and do you remember what you said?’

Achilles looked down at the ground. ‘Because I asked him to,’ he said.

‘That’s right. So you took him for the headphones, but also for another eight grand.’

‘Yes.’

‘And then you broke up my parents’ marriage.’

‘In fairness, he contacted me. I didn’t go looking for him.’

‘But you led him on. And, as far as I understand it, you went out on … what was it, four or five dates with him? Got him all confused and excited and then told him that if he didn’t pay you off, you’d tell his wife, my mum, about what was going on.’