He stepped down the last few stairs and placed the suitcase on the floor, then took a piece of paper from the small side table where she normally dumped her keys and handed it to her.

‘I left you this to explain everything. I thought it would be best.’

‘Explain what? Is it a work thing? Is someone poorly?’ She was utterly confused, and it was only on studying his grave face she realised what was happening. Bella’s heart plummeted, falling to the pit of her stomach. ‘You’re – are you? – are you leaving?’

‘Bella, I’m sorry.’ He dropped his eyes and shook his head.

‘This is a joke, right? This can’t be real. Evan …?’ She shook her head as Evan met her gaze for a second then dipped his eyes. ‘But … why?’ She hated how desperate she sounded, but she just couldn’t understand. They were happy. A choked cry emerged, and she pressed a hand to her mouth as if she could force the pain back inside.

Evan reached out for her, ducking under the low beam in the ceiling, but she backed away. He’d moaned at first about buying a small period property, but there weren’t actually many other options in Meadowbank. It was almost as if the place had been stopped in time somewhere around the 1900s and apart from a few post-war rebuilds on the very edge of the village, it remained very much how it ever was. Bella loved the period features. The timber frames that ran across the ceilings, the large stone fireplaces and wonky doorways that she’d grown up with, but it all seemed strange now, in this moment.

‘Bella, I’m sorry. This isn’t easy, but I’ve met someone else, and we’ve fallen in—’

‘Don’t say it,’ Bella cried, accidentally screwing up the unread note in her hand. ‘Don’t. You can’t have. I mean – when? How? Who? I – Evan, I don’t understand. We’re happy. Aren’t we?’

His face had taken on a hardness she’d never seen before. It made her feel pathetic and for a second she hated him for it. For doing this to her. His hand reached down to the handle of the suitcase as if he was getting ready to leave regardless of her wanting an explanation.

‘I know this is hard, Bella, and I’m sorry for that. Truly sorry.’ He didn’t look sorry. Not really. ‘It was why I wanted to be gone by the time you got back.’

‘I got away early,’ she replied, her voice small and quiet, like one of the children in class when she was telling them off. ‘I thought as it was Friday—’