She says nothing, but her gaze flicks from left to right as though she’s looking at each of my eyes in turn. She’s trying to work out how I’m feeling.

‘It was about Mark, wasn’t it?’ I say. ‘About him kissing Billy’s form tutor.’

I hear Liz inhale sharply behind me but don’t turn round.

Kira looks down at her feet. ‘Yes,’ she breathes.

‘Jake told you?’

‘Um … yeah. He said it was bullshit and Billy was shit-stirring because he had nothing better to do. He said Billy wanted to fuck everyone else’s lives up because he couldn’t stand anyone else being happy.’

‘Did Jake ask Mark if it was true?’

She chews on the side of her lip and says nothing.

‘Kira? Did Jake ask Mark if it was true?’

She nods, her eyes still downcast.

‘And? Did Mark admit it?’

Her gaze flickers up and her eyes meet mine. ‘Yes,’ she whispers. ‘Yes, he did but—’

‘One more question,’ I add quickly, before she can leave. ‘Did Billy ever tell you that he was in love with someone?’

Her gaze flits towards Liz, still sitting at the kitchen table with a shocked expression on her face, then returns to me. ‘I heard Caleb and Jake talking once, about a girl Billy liked. Jess, I think her name was. Is that who you mean?’

‘Did he love her?’

She shrugs. ‘I don’t know.’

Chapter 48

‘How are you feeling?’ Liz asks for what feels like the hundredth time.

Physically I’m fine. I’m sitting on a wooden chair across the table from my best friend with my arms crossed. Emotionally I am numb. I can’t process what Stephen told me earlier. Billy was in love with someone he couldn’t be with and Mark’s been prosecuted for sleeping with an underage girl. And he’s cheated on me. More secrets. More bloody secrets.

Mark and I have been together for over twenty years and it’s always been there, that fear that he might have strayed at some point in our relationship, but I never truly believed he was capable of that kind of deceit.

‘Men are such shits,’ Liz says. ‘I swear. I’m going to delete Tinder and go celibate. Do you think there’s an app that teaches you how to be a nun? How best to style your habit? How to get the no-make-up look? That sort of thing.’ She pushes her chair back from the table and sighs. ‘It’s not the actual shagging that’s the problem, is it? It’s all the lying and the sneaking around. I know they lie to their mistresses and say they’re not getting any at home but Lloyd and I were still having sex until the month before he—’

‘We didn’t have sex for nine months.’

‘Sorry?’ She shuffles her chair closer to the table.