Sadie leaves, and I make her promise not to tell Rupert what I’ve said to her. I want to tell him myself, knowing that he might be devastated to think that Caro is still alive – that she chose to live a life without him. Fear beats in my chest too, at the knowledge that once this is out there, Rupert might try to find her himself, and that if he does, there’s every chance that he’ll pick her over me, and our time together will be up. But at the moment, he thinks I’m mentally fragile, just like Caro was, and if there’s the slightest chance that this can prove to him that I’m not, that there is a reason for these things happening to me, then maybe he’ll realize that I haven’t imagined it all. When he comes home, I am waiting for him.

‘Rupert, I need to talk to you.’ I pass him a glass of the good red that he keeps in the basement, hoping to soften him up a little.

‘About your hare-brained theory?’ He snatches the glass out of my hand. ‘Sadie called me at work. She told me what you said. She’s worried about you.’

‘What? I told her not to say anything!’ The bitter sting of deception makes my eyes smart. ‘I wanted to talk to you about it myself.’

‘About the way you think Caro is still alive?’ Throwing back the wine, seemingly without even tasting it, Rupert pours himself another leaving my glass empty. ‘Jesus, Em, I don’t know what to say to you.’

‘But it’s a possibility,’ I cry, tugging at his sleeve as he turns to leave the room. ‘Don’t you agree? They never found Caro’s body… what’s to say that she isn’t still alive? She could be doing all of this to scare me off, to get rid of me.’ Desperation claws at my throat and I swallow, trying to get rid of the lump there.

‘She’s dead, Emily,’ Rupert roars, spittle flying in my face, and I jump back in fright, my heart hammering in my chest. I think for a moment he’s going to hit me – the image of Harry flying at me, the way he pulled me naked and crying from his bed, throwing me to the floor, as fresh in my mind as if it had happened yesterday – and I raise my hand to ward him off. Rupert slumps against the wall, rubbing his hand over his face. ‘She’s dead, Em. I know she’s dead. She walked out of that party and she drove to the bridge and she threw herself into the water. And I let her go. Please. Can you just stop now? I can’t take any more of this.’