It’s not long before Rob comes back down, clasping two large sports bags. She remembers them from their honeymoon – he’s always hated suitcases and would rather lug about these two bags than wheel a case. ‘I’ve got everything I need for now,’ he says.

Everything about this is wrong – even if he’s so easily accepted that it’s over between them, he should at least have questions. Anxiety bubbles inside her. ‘Don’t you want to know why?’

He walks to the front door, fishes his keys from his pocket. ‘I already know, Abby. This is about Greg, and clearly him being dead doesn’t make any difference.’

She stares at him. ‘How did you—’

‘It doesn’t matter. I’m not blind. I could tell the night of the dinner party there was something between you, some kind of attraction. But I fooled myself into believing I was being paranoid, that you’d never do anything like that to me.’

It takes a second for his words to register. ‘You’ve got it wrong, I never slept with Greg.’

He turns to face her. ‘Why lie now? What’s the point? Can’t you just be honest with me?’

‘Please, Rob, just listen to me.’ It’s time to tell him the truth about Mark, that he is the man she’s never been able to stop herself loving, even though she knows this will crush Rob above all else. He could handle it if he thought this was just about Greg – someone she only met recently – but Mark has been a shadow over them from the second they met in that bar. A shadow at their wedding, when they moved house… He’s been there through everything Abby and Rob have shared together.

The pain on his face is visible as she explains how she and Mark had met at school and were inseparable for years, how she’d tried to stop loving Mark after he’d left her, to shut off everything she felt. How even when he’d married someone else, Abby couldn’t shut him out. She explains to Rob that, in the end, though, it wasn’t fair to anyone to keep up the pretence. And then she admits that she saw him at his hotel and gave into it on Saturday night.

She says all of this without being able to look at Rob. This isn’t how she pictured telling him, as he’s halfway out of the door, still holding his bags. But now that it’s out she feels relieved, despite everything else weighing her down.

Rob shakes his head. ‘No. I knew someone called Mark was your first boyfriend, but you never mentioned how serious it was. You’re lying! It was Greg!’

‘No, Rob. I never slept with Greg.’

But he’s not listening, and is rushing from the house, slamming the door behind him.