‘Try me,’ Sadie says, pushing her plate to one side. ‘And you never know, it might help to get things off your chest.’

‘I keep feeling as though someone has been in the house,’ I say bluntly, the words tumbling out in a rush. ‘I first felt it when we came home from honeymoon, but Rupert just put it down to Amanda taking care of the house. Of course, it felt as though someone had been in there.’ I carry on, seeing Caro’s face smiling out from her wedding photo in pride of place on the mantelpiece.

‘Perhaps the cleaner put it out? She might not have realized what she was doing.’

‘Really?’ I look at her incredulously. ‘No, it wasn’t Anya. And it definitely felt as though someone had been in the house that day. I was showering and I just got that feeling that I wasn’t alone.’ I wait a moment, before deciding to tell Sadie everything. I might as well, now she knows this much. ‘And there have been calls.’

‘What do you mean, calls?’ Sadie asks.

‘Dropped calls, calls where nobody speaks, just breaths down the line. It never happens when Rupert is there, only when I’m on my own, and always late at night. I’m so on edge, I jump out of my skin every time the telephone rings. And then there are the text messages.’

‘Text messages?’

I reel off the messages, knotting my fingers together as I picture the photograph of me, my sash loose around my body as I rush fearfully down a deserted street in Bristol.

‘Oh my God, Em. Have you told Rupert about it?’

‘I tried,’ I sigh, fiddling with my wedding ring, aware that it is looser on my finger than it was three months ago. ‘I told him how I felt and he just kind of… brushed it aside. Said I was imagining things. He said he’d been through it all before with Caro.’

‘Oh. I see.’ Sadie waves over the waiter and orders another two glasses of champagne. ‘Listen, I can sort of see his point. Caro was… He had some difficult times with Caro, and it’s probably hard for him to deal with it. Maybe you shouldn’t tell him about it, not unless you have proof that you can show him. Do you still have the text messages?’

‘No, I deleted them. I should have kept them, shouldn’t I? I feel like such an idiot, but honestly, Sadie, it made me feel ill just to know that they were on my phone.’