‘No. Because she was a coward. She didn’t want to have to explain herself. That would have been too much like hard work. You know what she was like. She always wanted to get her own way without having to deal with the fallout of her actions.’

It was true, but Clodagh didn’t want to think about that now.

‘I don’t want to hear any more,’ she said.

‘Well you don’t have a choice. You’ve seen Vivienne’s version of events, now you’re going to hear mine. When she called to tell me she wanted a divorce, Vivienne told me she’d sent me an email explaining her reasons. These documents were attached to the email, along with that dreadful photo. She said if I didn’t agree to the divorce on her terms, she would send them out to the journalists whose names were in the emails. I already knew, by then, that she’d stopped loving me. But I never imagined – not even for a second – that she’d stoop to something like that. She told me she wanted me gone from the house by the time she came back from Crete. If I didn’t do what she wanted, she would destroy me. She did those bruises to herself, Clodagh. You want to know how I know that? Because I needed to see how she’d done it. Look.’

He let her go of her arm and jerked back, away from her. He put his right hand over his left wrist and twisted the skin, his face grimacing in pain.

‘Stop it,’ Clodagh said. ‘Please.’

The room felt as if it was tilting, as if the whole house was sliding into the ground. Everything Adam had written and said about his marriage was a lie. How could he expect her to believe him about this when he’d lied about so much else?

‘She was having an affair,’ he said. ‘That’s why she wanted a divorce.’

‘It must have been very convenient for you when she died.’

‘You think I wanted that? Jesus, Clodagh. Is that what you think of me? No matter what Vivienne had done, I was heartbroken when she died.’

She didn’t believe him. She’d never believe another word that came out of his mouth.

‘After the crash, I thought that was the end of it. She was dead and it was awful, I knew I had to make something positive out of such a terrible mess. That’s why I wrote the book. It was my way of remembering what things had been like when we first met. Before she destroyed everything. It never occurred to me there might come a time when someone would want to ruin it all for me.’

‘What are you talking about?’

Something cold crawled up from the pit of her stomach, filling her chest and clogging the back of her throat.

‘Nick.’

‘What about him?’