I watch him walk slowly up the stairs, his feet dragging, and his shoulders hunched and rounded and feel a hot spurt of shame. I did this to him. I reach for my scarf and coat, and tug open the front door, stepping out onto a mess of blood and guts. Another dead bird. Only this one has a note attached to it. It reads,

BITCH

Chapter Twenty-Six

In the morning, in a rare twist, Emily is up before him and Rupert comes downstairs to hot coffee and a bacon roll, even though it is barely seven o’clock. He kisses her on the cheek and smiles his thanks, even though he’s not sure his stomach can take bacon at such an early hour.

‘Will you be home for dinner?’ Emily asks, her hands knotted together in front of her. Her knuckles are white, and Rupert can see the way her wedding ring digs into her finger.

‘I’ll try.’ Rupert stoops to pick up his briefcase, as Emily lays a hand on his arm.

‘It would be nice,’ she says hesitantly. ‘I’m sorry for what I said last night. I know I hurt you, but I really didn’t mean to. Rupert, I’d be devastated if things went wrong between us.’

Rupert stops fiddling with his tie for a moment, not sure how to respond. ‘I know. I probably overreacted, but honestly, Em, you need to stop this, OK?’ His eyes search her face, but she looks down, scrubbing at something stuck onto the table. ‘Em, I mean it. I love you, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you, but I can’t deal with all this stuff you keep raking up. Caro is dead. Please, can we just focus on us?’

Emily finally looks at him, her face pale and her eyes ringed with dark circles where she hasn’t slept. Rupert feels an unshakeable sense of déjà vu, as he manages to lean down and peck Emily on her pale, cold cheek.

‘I’ll call you later, let you know about dinner.’ He picks up his briefcase and dashes for the front door, as if trying to outrun the claustrophobic feeling that he has been here before. That, despite his best efforts, things with Emily are going much the way they went with Caro. That this second chance to get things right, to get things exactly as he wanted them to be, is all going horribly wrong.

There is a knock at Rupert’s office door a little before lunchtime, and his heart sinks as Sadie is shown in by his secretary. Much as he loves Sadie, he knows that she is only here today to talk about the events of yesterday, about Emily’s revelation, and if he’s honest, he just wants to get on with his work and forget about it all for a few hours.