I looked at Oliver, and he put a hand on his wife’s arm, but she snatched it away, continuing to cry bitterly. ‘She said she never wanted to see us again, that we repulsed her, and then she ran off and locked herself in her bedroom. When I went up to see her an hour later she was gone, there was only a note, saying she never wanted to see us again.’ Her eyes welled with fresh tears. ‘I don’t think she’ll ever forgive us.’

‘Oh, Rose,’ I whispered. ‘I’m so dreadfully sorry.’

‘Why didn’t you tell me she’d been there that day?’ she asked angrily. ‘That she’d overheard us talking? We would have had some warning, we could have been prepared!’

‘Because you told me not to contact you!’ I cried. ‘And I had no idea that she would go looking for you all, that she’d been watching you all this time and would eventually do this! How could I have known? I told you nine years ago that I wanted to come clean, that I wanted to put this right, but you said no, you told me to stay out of your life and leave you alone!’

I stayed with them for a long time, and it was gone midnight by the time I left. On the drive back, the feeling of dread built and built. Would Hannah be home when I returned? What would I say to her if she was? I thought about Emily, how distressed she must be, and then of Oliver and Rose, their shock and devastation. It made me think of Toby, of how I’d feel if he told me he hated me and the idea of it made me physically sick. I longed suddenly to be home with him and Doug, and I put my foot on the accelerator and headed back as fast as I could towards Cambridgeshire.

As I turned the corner into our road it was almost 1 a.m., and I was met by a scene of such pandemonium that at first my eyes couldn’t make sense of it. The street was full of our neighbours, black smoke billowed from the upstairs windows of our home. My stomach dropped. I heard the sound of sirens, followed by two fire engines screaming down the street after me. I screeched to a halt then scrambled out of the car, stumbling and tripping in my haste as I ran towards my burning house.