Is that my pride speaking or is it because I still love my husband? It felt as though we were drifting apart, long before Billy went missing. We were living in the same house and sharing the same bed, but so little else. I don’t know if it was because we’d got to that stage in our relationship where we were taking each other for granted or if it was more serious than that. We clung to each other in the weeks and months after his disappearance but the gap between us has widened again. There are moments when I feel close to him but I’m so tired. So incredibly tired. The harder I try and hold this family together the weaker I become. I’m crumbling on the inside. If Mark is responsible for Billy’s disappearance I think it will finish me off.

The mobile vibrates with a new text from Liz.

Have you told him about the blackout?

No.

So many things have been whirling around in my mind this evening but what happened to me isn’t one of them.

Liz sends another text.

Do you want me to come to the police station with you tomorrow?

Thank you, I’d appreciate that. I’ll knock for you at 9 if that’s OK? Xx

I tap the phone’s back button and look at the list of text messages I’ve been sent recently. Stephen’s name is near the top. He’d be so unbearably smug if he knew about the photo album.

‘I’m going to the pub,’ Mark announces as he eases himself out of the armchair. He picks up his plate and then reaches for mine. He raises his eyebrows at my untouched food. ‘You all right?’

All right? Isn’t he the slightest bit worried about what I might do with the photo album? How can he have no idea what’s going on in my mind?

‘I’m not hungry.’

‘About me going to the pub, I mean. Shouldn’t Jake and Kira be back by now?’

Oh God. Kira. I’d completely forgotten I’d asked her to go out so I could talk to Mark. I need to text her and tell her it’s okay to come back.

‘Jake’s working late and Kira has gone to a friend’s house. You go to the pub.’

His gaze flits towards the photo album, still propped up on the sofa beside me. ‘I’m sorry,’ he says.

‘What for?’