The woman in the mirror laughed at her, long and hard. Paula turned blindly to reach for the bottle.

The drink was flowing in the casino, cocktails on tap, the waiter summoned by Anna as soon as Tommy’s glass was empty. One by one his friends dropped out and wandered off in drunken, penniless stupors until only he remained.

Anna was winning as much as she was losing, she noted, which was good because she had used a massive chunk of William’s money for today’s task, and the pile was rapidly diminishing. She flung two more five-hundred-euro chips on the table, covering black with one, red with the other. Tommy was too drunk to notice the futility of this. All he saw was the masses of money that she was literally throwing away.

‘Wish me luck,’ she said softly, lowering her eyes as she leaned into him.

He lurched off his stool to stand behind her. Suddenly, without warning, he pressed his body against her, the whole length of him pushing into her so hard she felt her pubic bones jut painfully against the roulette table. She experienced a strange mixture of disgust and pride. And then something else, a sensation that she very rarely – if ever – felt with a man. The slow, unfamiliar dawning of desire.

His arms came around her sides to lean on the table. Subtly, she moved back against him. He breathed satisfyingly heavily in her ear. Maybe, she thought, just maybe, once she had his home and Paula’s life and everything in it, she might keep him around for a while.

He murmured something unintelligible, and she turned her head slightly.

‘Are you sending me lucky vibes?’ she asked huskily.

He responded by grinding against her harder. She didn’t watch where the ball landed – black, red, it was all the same to her. But across the room she saw movement, a woman standing by the slot machines, in almost exactly the same place that Tommy had been when Anna had first started playing.

She wore an oversized coat, a man’s coat, Anna saw, as though she had picked up the nearest garment and thrown it on without looking. Her face was red, blotchy, streaked with tears that even now were falling down her cheeks as she watched the scene unfold before her.

Her jaw was slack, her eyes bleak. She looked like she had lost everything.

Anna smiled and bit her bottom lip.

‘Tommy,’ she said quietly, without taking her eyes off Paula. ‘Your wife is watching you.’