It’s nearly one a.m. by the time she arrives, and she heads straight to his house. Although she knows the name of the road – he’d told her when they spent the night together after her mum died – she’s never seen the property. Many times, she’s imagined what it looks like, and what he was doing behind its walls, what his life was like with Cassie. She’d thought about coming, just to look, but she never did. There’s too thin a line between curiosity and obsession.

She sees it immediately – it’s the only property with a For Sale board sprouting from the grass. Couples buy their houses, full of hopes and dreams for their futures, never thinking one day they’ll be selling up, going their separate ways. She hasn’t asked Mark how Cassie feels about their divorce; it’s something she doubts she’ll ever know now. And it’s not important if Mark turns out to be worse than someone who’s left her for another woman.

There’s no way she can knock on the door now – she doesn’t even know for sure that he’s there – so she sends him a text.

I’m in Ipswich, outside your house. Don’t make me knock on the door.

It takes less than a minute for his reply to come.

I’m coming. Don’t do anything.

Her eyes remain fixed on the front door once she’s read his text. He’s in there, she knows it, and she’s not going to give him a chance to say otherwise. She doesn’t care that he’s back in the home he shares with his ex-wife. She only wants to know what he’s running away from.

For ten minutes she sits in her car waiting, seeing no sign of life in the house. Then the door opens and he’s standing there, staring into the night. She rolls the window down but stays in the car, and it’s not long before he sees her.

He’s walking towards her now. She can’t let him in her car. Throwing open the door she gets out, keeping her distance from him. It’s reassuring that there are still lights on in a few of the houses on the street.

Mark stares at her, and she prepares herself to hear things her brain won’t want to compute. ‘What the hell, Abby? Why would you leave like that?’

‘You really don’t know?’ She backs further away.

‘No. I assumed you were just trying to get back at me for when I left you before.’

This is not what she’s expected. ‘What?’

‘Can we sit in the car? I don’t want Cassie seeing us.’

Abby glances towards the house, where only the hall light is visible. ‘No. We’ll talk out here.’