‘Clever girl. Who do you think Rupert is going to believe when you run to him and tell him that Sadie is the big, bad wolf? Me – his oldest friend? Or you? Some little tart he’s married to but barely knows. Who’s been accusing people of all sorts of things practically from day one? Calm down, Emily, you’ll only be making a fool of yourself. Although, I suppose that’s the best way for things to go.’

‘He’ll believe me.’

‘No, Emily, he won’t. I’ve made sure of that, haven’t I? Don’t you realize that you’ve fucked everything up by appearing on the scene?’

‘You wanted Rupert for yourself.’ Realization dawns as I watch the hatred settle on her face. She never liked me. All those times that she ‘let me in’ it was all fake. ‘You wanted Rupert all for yourself. What did you do? Drive Caro to it?’ I can’t resist taunting her a little. ‘You drove Caro to it, and then your plan backfired?’

Sadie is silent for a moment, shock written all over her face. ‘What kind of person do you think I am? Of course, I had nothing to do with Caro dying, you sick bitch. But when Rupert was all alone, I knew it was our chance to be together. It should have been me all along – it would have been if I hadn’t introduced him to Caro at university.’

‘That’s what you told Rupert, that night of your Easter party, wasn’t it? And he rejected you.’

‘I told him he needed to sort himself out after the memorial. I meant it was time to move on, with me. I was always the right one for him, and I thought after Caro died, he would see sense, finally. I didn’t mean for him to settle down with some…’ Her mouth twists as she spits the words at me.

‘Some… what?’ Fury makes me bold. ‘You wanted me to think I was going mad – you wanted Rupert to think I was going mad. That way, Rupert would leave me of his own accord, and then you could step in, and no one would think badly of you, they’d all be relieved that Rupert had someone who could take proper care of him.’ I let out a harsh bark of laughter. ‘I think you might have severely underestimated me, Sadie.’

Sadie blinks, and takes another drag on her cigarette. ‘The way you underestimated me, you mean? Oh, thank you Sadie, for including me, thank you for being so kind to me, Sadie. You’re pathetic. And now Rupert thinks you’re bonkers, he’ll be glad to be rid of you.’

‘I doubt that very much,’ I say, as I hold up my phone, the screen showing that our entire conversation has been recorded.

Chapter Thirty