Shock makes my eyes ping open, and my heart starts to race. I slide my gaze across to the key hooks that are fixed to the wall next to the fridge. I step closer, reaching out, looping my fingers around the one at the very end. It’s my key – the spare key to my (our) house. I tug it from the hook, as things start to slowly, gradually click into place. The handwriting. The key. All this time Sadie has had access to our house. She knows what perfume Caro wore; what’s to stop her from walking in when no one is home and spritzing it around the bedroom, making me think that someone – Caro, even – had been in there? I think of the day I had found Lola lying broken in the driveway, my heart twisting as I picture her tiny face. That was the day we’d been invited to Amanda’s for lunch, the day she announced her pregnancy. Sadie had arrived late to the lunch, making some bitchy comment about how I had been early. Couldn’t she have waited for me to leave before hurting Lola, and then coming to lunch as if nothing had happened? I want to kick myself – she practically told me herself in the video, her arms looped around Rupert’s neck – ‘it should have been me’. I feel sick, hot, the room starting to spin a little and I sink into the nearest chair.

‘Darling, are you OK?’ I look up to see Sadie’s concerned face looming over me. I’m not sure if I am imagining it, but I think I see the corner of her mouth tug up into a little smile.

‘It was you, wasn’t it?’ I say after a moment, raising my eyes to her. ‘You did all of this.’

‘All of what? You haven’t been sipping out of my glass, have you? That’s for grown-ups only.’ Sadie smirks and I know for certain then.

‘How could you?’ I get to my feet, shaky now the shock has set in. ‘Rupert was supposed to be your friend, but you did all of this. Sneaking into the house, making me think that someone had been there. Sending me vile messages and Lola… oh my God, you did that to Lola.’

‘I fucking hate cats. And so does Rupert, believe it or not.’ Sadie smirks as she pulls out a packet of cigarettes and lights one, blowing the smoke in my face.

‘And you sent that video message. What were you going to do, delete it so that when I showed Rupert it was gone, and I look mad?’