‘I’m sorry. This must be an awful shock for you. If you’ve blocked these memories for so long, this must be like living it for the first time.’

It took a moment for Louisa to realise she was crying. ‘Part of me is refusing to believe what you’re saying. The part that thinks I’m a good person who would never intentionally hurt someone else and would never lie about it if I had. Not about something so huge. The other part of me knows you must be right. I did that. I ki—’ Louisa couldn’t say the word. She looked up at Oliver. She needed him close to her, wanted his arms around her, comforting her, making her feel safe. A small sob burst out of her. ‘What happened, when you got to me, what happened next?’

‘You were in pieces, so distraught that it took me an age to coax out of you what had happened. I thought it was something at the party, that someone had hurt you. I never imagined …’ Oliver stopped, perhaps noticing that she’d lowered her head in shame, and he patted the sofa. ‘Come and sit here, Lou-Lou.’

She got up and, her legs still numb, slowly moved to sit with him, thankful for his kindness. Glad that he still wanted to be near her. He put his arm around her and she rested her head on his shoulder. Tears immediately dampened his shirt.

‘I was in shock when you told me about the accident. That your car had hit and knocked down a woman.’

‘It was a woman?’

‘A young woman, yes.’

‘Oh my God.’ She was going to be sick. She put her hand to her mouth, swallowing again and again in an attempt to keep her stomach contents in.

‘You kept repeating over and over – she’s not moving, she’s not moving. After about ten minutes of your hysterics, the only thing I thought I could do to calm you down was to say I’d go and look. So I took my car and I drove the route you said you’d taken.’

Louisa prayed Oliver was about to say, ‘But there was no one there when I got to where you said it’d happened.’ But he didn’t.

‘She was dead, Lou-Lou. I checked for her pulse, but I could tell just looking at her, her staring eyes, her limbs at awkward angles. Her head split open like a melon—’

‘Oliver! Please, no more.’ She didn’t need to know the gruesome bits. That wasn’t going to help at all. ‘What did you do?’

‘All I could think of doing in that situation. I had to protect you, Lou. Like you knew I would. That’s why you called me – to clear up your mess, help you.’

‘No, surely I was just in shock. Distraught, like you said. I wanted you because you were my boyfriend. I wanted comfort.’