‘She was well and truly smitten. He was this good-looking rugby lad, played for one of the big team academies. Saracens, I think.’

‘Why did she never tell us?’

‘She thought we wouldn’t approve, that he would distract her from her GCSEs. Anyway, they broke up about a month ago and he had . . . he had a video of her that he was circulating to his mates.’

There was a sudden chill at the top of my spine, icy fingers lain across my skin.

‘What kind of video?’

‘The worst kind.’

I remembered our conversation from a few days ago.

A video with you in it, Lucy?

The sort of thing . . . you wouldn’t want me to see?

She had told me, she had tried to tell me. But I hadn’t got the message, too preoccupied with my own problems.

‘Christ,’ I breathed. ‘Go on.’

‘Do you remember Russ and Rowan’s barbecue, when we all got together to plan for the holiday?’

‘I remember Lucy being particularly grumpy and shouty and making us half an hour late because she wouldn’t get up and get dressed.’

‘Jake followed her around like a puppy dog all afternoon, remember? Then they disappeared for an hour, in that office pod thing that Russ has at the bottom of his garden.’

‘Daniel teased her about it.’

‘Yeah.’ He looked up at the sky, the clouds now hanging ominous and dark above us. The wind was picking up. ‘Let’s go inside, looks like the heavens are about to open.’

We went into the dining room and sat down at the end of the long table, right where I had sat with Izzy just a few hours before. My heart was heavy, like a lead weight in my chest, just thinking about her. I felt the tears coming again and blinked them back.

Sean held his hand out to me.

‘Have you got your mobile?’

I took my phone out of my pocket and unlocked it for him.

‘What are you doing?’

He took the phone from me and went to a site called VideoVault, logging in with his own ID.

‘Jake was in the habit of taking candid pictures of girls he knew, to look at afterwards. He took some of Lucy. Little video clips too, when she didn’t realise it.’

He found whatever he was looking for and turned the phone sideways, holding it up so we could both see.

‘What am I looking at?’ I said.

‘Just watch.’