The other thing I had not counted on was that I would feel sorry for her. What a mess she’d got herself into, saddled with that controlling, passive-aggressive husband, so worn down that she thought she couldn’t leave. Not even knowing Patrick was dead, so likely she thought she’d been ghosted, as the teenagers said. Dumped, and pregnant. I knew how it was to have someone worry away at you, telling you you’re crazy, you’re no good, you’re defective. So once I was installed as her helpful new neighbour and confidante, I made a new plan. To investigate Nick Thomas and find out what skeletons he had lurking in his past. To encourage Suzi to strike out alone, before the baby came. Then to wait until the child was born, and make sure I kept it with me, for ever.

When someone grabbed my hand in my cottage that night, I screamed. I flailed. ‘Get out of my house! Get out!’

‘Calm down, Elle,’ said a voice close to my ear. ‘Don’t make a fuss. I just want to talk.’

I fumbled the switch, and saw who it was blinking in the harsh light. James Conway. I recognised his smell of stale alcohol. ‘What the hell are you doing here?’

Suzi

Suzi

With everything that had happened so far, it shouldn’t have been a shock that I was totally in the dark. But still, I struggled to believe what I’d seen with my own eyes – that Nora, my new friend, the confidante I’d shared everything with, was your wife. Your widow. Eleanor. Nora. The same person. No, my brain said. It can’t be. It must be a mistake. Why had she come here? To hurt me, clearly. To ruin me. Oh God! What was she planning? She knew I had slept with her husband, that I was maybe pregnant with his child. I couldn’t stop shaking at the thought, like a bucket of cold water over my head. All the times I’d wondered if it would really be so bad if your wife knew, and here I had my answer – yes, it was awful. I was going to lose everything. Nick would find out. She might hurt me, hurt the baby. And worst of all – I would deserve it. I had done this, cold-bloodedly slept with her husband, over and over. But if she knew about the affair, why hadn’t she acted yet? What was her plan? Why were the three of us, me and her and Nick, still living in this limbo?