Anna kept crouching beside her, kept holding her. It was all she could do. And that made her heart break. If there were something she could do to stop it – invent a pill, perform a challenge set by the gods, step into Gabi’s body and take it herself – she would. But she knew she couldn’t. Just as Gabi hadn’t been able to do it for her.

Anna led Gabi upstairs and showed her to the guest bedroom. She found toiletries and a fresh toothbrush and handed over a spare set of pyjamas. Once Gabi was changed and ready, she climbed into bed and lay there on the freshly plumped pillows. She looked utterly exhausted, beyond thought, beyond speech.

Anna knew what this felt like: when you were so wrung out from all the emotion that all you wanted to do was be by yourself and curl into a little ball. Hide under the duvet and pretend the outside world didn’t exist.

Once again, she forgave Gabi for all the ‘meddling’ over the last few years. Watching her best friend go through this for one night was bad enough; it must have been awful for Gabi to have to do it week on week, month on month, year on year. No wonder that sometimes she’d got a little pushy.

Chapter Thirty-Nine

BRODY SAT IN his armchair and coughed. That dodgy spring was definitely on its last legs. He could feel it sticking into his left buttock. Terrific. He shifted position and placed a mug on the small table that stood between the chair and the fireplace. It was his usual dram of whisky, but this time he’d added hot water, lemon and a pinch of cinnamon. He’d woken up this morning feeling clammy and feverish, and now his nose had started to run. Even more terrific.

He picked up his phone, pressed a sequence of buttons and called Anna’s number.

‘Hi,’ she said, but he could hardly hear her.

‘I think there’s something wrong with the connection,’ he told her. ‘I’ll hang up and try again.’

‘No! Don’t do that!’ There was some muffled noise, as if she was walking to another place in the house. He heard a door close, and then she continued. ‘There’s nothing wrong with the line. I was just whispering.’

‘Oh, okay,’ he said, dropping his volume level and tone to match hers. ‘And why are we whispering?’

‘I’ve got someone staying with me.’

Brody’s stomach dropped. He deliberately hadn’t asked about this Jeremy guy, even though he was aware she’d been seeing him for a few weeks, but this was a new development.

‘Sorry…’ she added.

Not as sorry as he was.

‘She just came out of her room and headed for the bathroom and took me by surprise. I thought she went to sleep hours ago.’

‘She?’

‘Gabriela. Poor thing. Her boyfriend dumped her a couple of days ago. Or, I suppose, technically she dumped him, but only because he deserved it. I said she could stay at mine because she says all she does is cry all day when she’s on her own.’ Anna sighed heavily. ‘At least when she’s here she’s only crying half the time…’