I also get the feeling that she’ll tell her parents about our encounter today. Kate won’t like it one bit. I’m actually really anxious about her finding out, but I can’t exactly tell Bella not to mention it. That will sound really suspicious. My worry is that if she tells her mum, Kate might forbid her from talking to me again. Which means that this could be my one and only opportunity to talk to Bella before the truth all comes out about who she really is.

What should I do? I could take a few wrong turns to delay our time together. But that won’t work, because she’s doing too good a job of directing me.

‘It’s left here,’ Bella says, pointing ahead.

The only other way is to be direct. Thankfully the storm outside is so loud and the windscreen wipers so frantic that Charlie and Jess can barely hear us from the back seat. Before I can talk myself out of it, I open my mouth and start speaking.

‘So, do you like your new home?’

‘S’okay.’

‘I bet it’s good to have your dad back though,’ I say, feeling like an utter, utter bitch. I snatch a quick glance to see Bella’s expression and am rewarded to see her flush deeply. It’s a strange feeling, because the last thing I want is to make her uncomfortable, but I also need to know what’s going on with Shaun.

‘I… I thought no one here knew about that.’ Bella starts chewing the skin around her thumbnail.

‘Don’t worry. I won’t say anything to anyone.’

She looks like she might cry. ‘It wasn’t Dad’s fault, you know.’

‘Of course it wasn’t. Sorry, I shouldn’t have brought it up.’ I feel like crying myself for making her feel so miserable, but I need to know that Bella is safe. That Shaun isn’t violent or anything worse. ‘Look, don’t mention to your mum and dad that I said anything. I don’t want them to feel bad.’ She’ll probably still tell them, but it’s worth a shot.

Luckily, Jess leans forward and starts talking to Bella about school again, which distracts her from my comment about her dad. At least I hope it distracts her.

Seeing the state she’s now in, there’s no way I can ask Bella what her dad was in for, not without upsetting her further, and that’s the last thing I want. But it’s killing me not to know.

I’ll have to find out some other way.

20

As we turn into Bella’s street, I slow the car down, pretending I don’t know which one is her house.

‘You can drop me here,’ she says before we’re even halfway down the street.

‘It’s still pouring,’ I reply. ‘I’ll drop you right outside. Which one’s yours?’