It was then that Oliver spoke for the first time. ‘I’ll do it,’ he said. ‘I mean, please, if I may?’ He looked so meek and uncertain, so very different from the dashing, charming man I’d met that day in the supermarket. In fact, he looked more like a cowed, frightened … well, wimp is the only word I can think of, to be honest. I felt a sharp cold flash of disdain. I looked away and nodded, and he followed Doug into the kitchen.

Rose began to cry again. ‘That poor woman,’ she said. ‘Oh, Beth, that poor, poor woman.’

And it’s funny, because there I was, a baby in my arms, Rose’s desperate, frightened eyes staring back at me, the knowledge that a woman had died that night, and yet I felt completely calm. Here they were, these big important people, so clever, so successful compared to me, sitting in my living room, miserable and terrified and wanting me to make it all better for them. I held her to me, little Lana as she was called then, and knew what Rose was going to ask me to do.

When Oliver came back in with the bottle of milk, he hesitated, then passed it to me. ‘Would you like to do it?’ I asked him. I raised the baby slightly, offering her to him, and I saw his eyes dart to Rose, saw her briefly shake her head, and, deflated, he dropped his gaze and turned away. I will remember forever the disgust I felt for that man right then. I had thought that he and Rose were so admirable, people to look up to. I realized in that moment how very wrong I’d been.

I turned to Rose. ‘What are you asking us to do?’

To her credit, she didn’t bother beating around the bush. ‘You want a child,’ she said bluntly, ‘you want a baby. I can arrange everything, all the hospital paperwork so you can get a birth certificate saying she is yours.’

Only Doug was surprised. He looked from one to the other of us in confusion before the penny dropped. ‘Are you completely out of your minds?’ he said. ‘This is absolute madness! You need to go to the police and tell them what happened. We want no part of this. We could be arrested. Aiding and abetting it’s called, or … or obstructing the police or something. Absolutely not. This is your mess, not ours.’

‘What if they think I killed her?’ Rose cried. ‘That I pushed her! It will all come out who she is, they’ll say I did it out of revenge. Even if they don’t blame me there will be such a scandal! My career…’ She turned to me, pleading: ‘You are our only hope, Beth. Haven’t you always wanted a child? Now you can be a mother at last. Please, Beth. Please!’

Silently I turned to Doug.