‘As far as I know they were downsizing. It’s a big place when there’s no little ones.’ She smiled at me as she lied, her lips moving and leaving her eyes untouched. ‘This is your first?’ Nodding to my bump.

‘Third!’ I said, inventing some random children. ‘That’s why we need a bigger place. This is lovely.’

‘Yes – a wonderful property. The owners were very house-proud, maintained it all beautifully, as you can see.’

‘Cream carpets, though. My lot would have this trashed in seconds!’ I was quite enjoying my alternate persona, a cheerful mother of almost-three. Probably she baked and rolled her eyes, laughing, when the kids drew on the walls.

I moved into what I could tell had been your bedroom. Built-in wardrobes slid aside to reveal nothing. I didn’t know what I was expecting, suits or shoes or something.

‘Lovely.’

She burbled on about storage and hot water pressure while I breathed in. You had been here. Your essence was still in the air. In the bathroom, she turned her back to check her phone, and that was when I spotted it. Something had been left behind in the mirrored wall cabinet. It was built around a corner, so that the inner space was hidden unless you put your hand in. Probably your wife had had cleaners in, and they hadn’t been too thorough.

I pretended to check the light fitting; the agent wasn’t looking. In a flash I stuck my fingers into the cabinet and pulled out the thing, shoved it into my bag. She looked at me. I moved the mirrored door between us, hiding my face.

‘Well, it’s certainly something to think about. Maybe I’ll come back with my husband.’ I wondered what his name was. Gary, perhaps.

‘Let me take your details, so we can keep in touch. I didn’t catch your name.’

‘Oh, it’s Lydia,’ I said, thinking of a girl I’d been to school with, a fearless chancer who once broke into the teachers’ lounge and stole a tin of biscuits. ‘Lydia Hutton.’

She asked for my email but I said I didn’t really have one, ‘Bit of a Luddite, ha ha’, and I reeled off a fake mobile number. Whoever it belonged to would be getting all those spam texts estate agents send you. Houses that cost four times what you said your budget was, totally different to what you’d asked for.

‘I’d make an offer soon, the couple who were just here are very interested,’ she said. I wondered how they were able to lie so convincingly, estate agents, if they trained them or recruited people who were already good at it. But then, I was learning that lying was not so very difficult after all, if you had a lot to lose by telling the truth.