‘Look, without actual proof it’s going to be hard to make Rupert listen. I’m not dismissing it, Emily, you know I would never do that, but I think perhaps you are reading a little too much into things, when there are perfectly reasonable explanations. The calls could just be a wrong number… the photo could have been put up by the cleaner—’ she holds up a hand before I can speak, ‘no, I know you disagree, but you haven’t actually asked her, have you? How are you sleeping?’

‘I’m barely sleeping at all at the moment, and not just because I’m worried about things.’ I swat at my cheeks, at the tear that runs slowly down my face. ‘It’s just so hard, Sadie. The whole marriage thing. I don’t mean to sound cruel, but it’s difficult for us to make a life together when Caro is everywhere. I feel like I’m constantly battling her ghost.’

‘But Rupert doesn’t talk about her that much, does he?’ Sadie leans in close, her perfectly groomed eyebrows meeting in concern.

‘It’s not that. She’s just left reminders everywhere. Like, on our honeymoon, I know he’d been to the island before, but I’m sure he’d been to the restaurant we ate at, too, presumably with Caro. Just from a few little things that he let slip… the maître d’ seemed to know him, and he commented that the menu was amazing before we’d even seen it.’

‘He could have googled it, to be fair.’

‘He could, but I just got the feeling that he was familiar with the place. I waited and waited for him to say something and he didn’t. And he’s just a bit distant sometimes, I suppose, compared to when we were first dating.’

Sadie looks as though she’d like to say something before she smiles and moves on. ‘Look, marriage is difficult. It wasn’t all plain sailing for Rupert and Caro either, you know.’

‘No?’ I raise my tear-stained face to meet Sadie’s eyes.

‘No, of course not. They argued like any other couple.’

‘About what?’

‘Well, that isn’t for me to say,’ Sadie says primly, and I feel like a klutz, putting my foot in it. Of course, Sadie isn’t going to tell me things that Caro told her in confidence. ‘All I will say is that life is never perfect, Emily. Now, come on, let’s go and fix that make-up.’

I let Sadie lead me into the Ladies, where she disappears into a cubicle and I delve into my handbag to pull out a lipstick. Only, when I slide off the lid, instead of the almost nude pink I’m expecting to see, it’s Caro’s distinctive orangey-red and the blood in my veins turns to ice.