When the estate agent leaves on Tuesday morning, Abby feels numb. This is all happening too quickly, and it doesn’t feel right. She can understand Rob wanting to move on, but he’s pushing her faster than she’d expected him to. It’s selfish of her, but she was hoping for things to move slowly, to give her time to adjust to everything, even though this has all been her choice. Rob wants her out of his life – she understands that – but still his behaviour feels off. Almost warped.

She tries to ignore it, spending the morning planning lessons for January, and she’s grateful when Mark’s call comes. ‘Let’s meet for lunch,’ he suggests. ‘In Covent Garden. I’ve heard there’s a great tapas bar there. I’ll message you the details.’

When she arrives, he’s already there, standing outside, smiling at her. She likes the way he watches her, taking in every detail of her, consuming her. He really sees her.

‘Did you talk to your friend?’ Mark asks after they’ve ordered.

‘I don’t know if I can still call her that – so much has happened. But yes, we’ve talked it through.’

‘And? What happened?’

‘She told me she believes me. Finally. And she thinks she’s found the name of the patient Greg was seeing.’

Mark raises his eyebrows. ‘Oh.’ He lifts his glass. ‘And what’s she hoping to achieve?’

‘I think she just wants to know what he did. Part of her still probably believes it was an accident, and that maybe Greg gave her the wrong medication or one of his procedures went wrong, which led to the woman’s death, but I know that’s not what happened. Greg told me he’d lost patients before and he’d learned to deal with it. He said this was different. Deliberate.’

She has never told Sienna Greg’s exact words. ‘Anyway, I’m going to go with her to find the family of this woman. Her name was Leela.’

Mark frowns. ‘Abby, don’t you think maybe it’s time to let Sienna deal with this? You don’t have to be part of it.’

‘I already am, though. I still feel responsible.’

‘You didn’t suggest the partner swap, did you? And you didn’t make Greg confess anything to you.’

On the surface this appears true, but Abby knows that by digging deeper, it’s clear that she could have done something to stop things going as far as they did. If she hadn’t been so consumed with protecting her marriage, then Greg might still be alive. When he refused to tell Sienna the truth, she should have done it herself, with no hesitation. How ironic that her marriage to Rob was beyond saving, with or without Greg’s involvement. It always had been.