Or was he? Maybe she was the dangerous one in all this. After all, he’d saved her, prevented her from ruining her life. It appeared she’d been the dangerous one.

Oliver’s words came to her: Why ruin our lives too, Lou-Lou? Louisa cringed at the thought she’d agreed to keep quiet. Selfish cow. Evil. That’s the only explanation for covering something like that up.

She and Oliver were both evil.

Louisa threw back the duvet and swung her legs out of bed. A dizziness stopped her from standing; she stayed sitting on the edge of the mattress. She felt sick with tiredness. Typical – Noah had had the best night’s sleep ever, and Louisa had just had the worst. All the years her mind had been protecting her, and now the truth had come out, it was going to make her suffer.

But that’s what she deserved.

She turned to look at Brian. He deserved better than her. She wondered if he would stand by her if he found out, whether he’d still love her if he knew what kind of person she really was.

She also wondered if he would have made the same sacrifice as Oliver had for her.

Come on, Lou. Get up.

She took some steadying breaths, then slowly made her way into the nursery. A gentle cooing greeted her. Noah’s legs pumped as she peered into his cot. Soon he’d be turning over and then the fun would start. Louisa had forgotten most of the developmental milestones and had to google almost everything now. She’d mostly had books back when Emily had been born, but was thankful for how different things were now with the internet so easily accessible on various devices. She lifted him from the cot and made her way downstairs. After feeding him, then getting Emily up and chivvying her along, Louisa was going to do some internet searches of a different kind.

Searching Missing persons in Devon from 1995 on Google, Louisa felt nauseous. She closed her eyes as she hit the return button, bracing herself for the results.