A neat deflection. ‘At a charity bash I was helping to organize. The company he works for were major contributors. They still are. He changed my life.’

I feel her eyes on my profile and glance at her. ‘What?’

‘First Douglas and then Nick. Do you always need a man to change your life? Sorry,’ she says, after a pause. ‘That was unfair.’

‘No, you’re right. I met them both at low points and they helped me get on my feet. I … um … I had been in care before I met Douglas, you see.’

‘Oh.’

I don’t look at her, I don’t need to. I can hear the surprise in her voice.

‘I’m not what I seem,’ I say with a smile that feels weirdly coy. ‘This is all a facade.’

‘A good one,’ she deadpans. ‘I thought you were the perfect South London yummy mummy.’

I laugh. ‘Hardly … Anna, none of my friends knows about this, so please don’t talk about it.’

‘You haven’t told Cassie? I thought you were so close.’

I feel a stab of guilt. ‘We are, but that time is behind me. I don’t want it seeping into the life I’ve got now.’

‘No one would even care, Grace. They’d respect you for it.’

‘Still, please don’t say anything.’

‘I won’t say a word; I promise.’ She takes her phone out of her bag, swipes the screen then puts it back, turning to me eagerly. ‘And I get it, I really do.’

‘Thank you. Nick needed me as much as I needed him, you know,’ I add, wanting her to know that it wasn’t only me who needed saving. ‘He said it had been years since he’d felt so happy. He told me once that he couldn’t believe I’d chosen him.’

‘Really?’ She sounds disapproving. ‘He sounds needy. Like your little rescue dog.’

‘He isn’t like that at all,’ I protest. ‘He’s the strongest person I know.’

Or I thought he was. I look down at my hands and a tear drops into the dip between my knuckles.

‘What if he’s left me? What if it’s something I’ve done?’

‘Don’t be silly; you couldn’t have done anything so bad that he’d leave without telling you why. That would have been the act of a coward.’

I dart a look at her as the cab turns into Camomile Avenue and she fumbles in her bag for her keys, but there’s nothing apart from concern and sympathy registering. Even so, the moment sent a shock wave through my body, because in that split second I believed she knew what I had done. It was a gut feeling caused by an almost imperceptible change in her tone. A tiny ripple that disturbed my subconscious.

But of course she doesn’t know; she can’t do, because the only person who knows is Douglas.