‘Of course. I think it’s great that you’ve hooked back up with them.’ Brian’s voice sounded far away, despite only being down the road at her parents’. She wondered if they were making it awkward, whether they were as hard work as they had been the last time Louisa visited them. ‘You could do with some company, a bit of fun,’ he added.

‘Not sure how late I’ll be, though, so don’t wait up or anything. I’ll take house keys.’

She waited as Brian’s muffled voice relayed this information to her mum and dad – why he felt the need to do so was beyond her.

‘I’ll get takeaway for us all and stay here then,’ he said finally. ‘You go – and try to enjoy yourself.’

As much as Louisa felt the urge to question what on earth her mum and dad would eat from a takeaway, she let it go so she could get off the phone. He’d obviously been far better at building bridges than she’d thought, and her parents wanted them to stay. That had to be a positive thing, she guessed.

‘Thank you. See you when I get back.’

Louisa ended the call then got dressed into an outfit that would look as though she were going out to the pub, not to the common on the edge of the village. She couldn’t dress down too much, or Brian might query it when she got home later. If he was still awake of course. She put her flat shoes on – she had to walk for about ten minutes to the back lane running out of Little Penchurch to reach the common where she was going to meet Melissa.

And Oliver.

When Louisa had returned home from Court Farm earlier, she’d felt exhausted, confused, conflicted, angry and full of indecision about what to do. Melissa had been clear, though. She had talked Louisa into setting up a meeting with Oliver. And then, as planned, Melissa was going to ambush him. A bizarre ‘surprise’ she was imagining to be even more awful than her fortieth party. Louisa’s stomach twisted with nerves just thinking about it. The two of them, confronting Oliver about what he did. Her confusion came from why Melissa seemed prepared to overlook the fact it was Louisa’s irresponsible and dangerous behaviour that had caused the accident in the first place, and was instead wholly intent on making just Oliver suffer.

The most worrying aspect to Melissa’s ‘plan’ was not knowing the outcome. Once they’d confronted him – what was going to happen then? She had no idea how, exactly, Melissa intended to make him suffer. That part of the plan hadn’t been discussed, and that’s what set Louisa’s heart rate soaring. The unknown. She was walking into this with her eyes only partially open. Melissa could be operating on a completely different agenda to her.