I look at her and she glances at me simultaneously and it’s the first time we’ve made eye contact since we started this conversation. We both look away instantly, as though we’ve been burned, but before I do I’m surprised to see hurt behind the anger.

‘No,’ I say, keeping my voice steady. ‘I don’t.’

The car enters a tunnel and the sound of the traffic bounces off the concrete walls and roars in my ears. I feel like screaming into the noise, letting everything out until I’m purged of all emotion, stripped back to the bare truth in my bones. The truth that says I’ve wanted my own kids for so long and I can hardly bear to face the fact I may not get to have them. I’m breathless as I watch the pinprick of light expanding, bigger and bigger, until it envelops us and we’re out the other side.

‘You do,’ she says. ‘You’ve been undermining me the whole time. You think I haven’t noticed? Of course I have! You want the children to think you’re better than me. So you bake special cakes and make sure you give them endless bedtime stories and come up with these amazing party decorations and let them watch television when you know I’d say no. I’ve seen you, and I’ve put up with it because I have to, because we can’t find anyone else to replace you at such short notice. But don’t think I haven’t noticed. Don’t think I’m happy about it.’

‘I haven’t,’ I say. ‘I didn’t do that to—’

She cuts me off. ‘Yes, you did.’ We’re driving past Villeneuve now, entering the Rhône Valley with its apricot orchards on the plains and vineyards creeping up the slopes. Aren’t there any cameras along here? Or maybe she’s so rich she doesn’t care about getting a speeding ticket.

‘And another thing.’ She looks at me again. I look ahead, willing her to keep her eyes on the road. ‘I know that you’ve been… what’s the word…’ She makes a winding motion with one hand as she searches for it, then slams it down on the steering wheel. ‘Spying. You’ve been spying in our bedroom. I found the necklace, Jess, and I know it was you. Neither Maria nor Michel would break it and not tell me. And the kids don’t have the skills to glue it back together so well. So it must have been you. Putain, Jess, what were you doing in there?’

I’m tempted to deny everything, to make out she’s crazy, she’s accusing me unfairly. But I realise, with a shock, that it’s a relief she knows. I’ve been holding my breath for weeks, and now I can breathe out.