It’s not until later, once Sadie and Amanda have finished the bottle of rosé, and we’ve spent the afternoon discussing the honeymoon and how I am going to fill my time now that I’m not working, that I remember what Amanda said when she first arrived. It was probably your cleaner woman. My mind flits back to the bedroom earlier today, stepping over Rupert’s dirty laundry to get to the bathroom. The thing is, I am pretty sure that Anya wasn’t supposed to be working today.

Chapter Fourteen

Rupert is exhausted when he gets home on Friday night – this week has flown by and it feels like the honeymoon was months ago, although to be fair, he carried on working from his sun lounger for most of it. He felt less relaxed when he got back than he did before he left.

‘Honey, I’m home!’ He chuckles to himself under his breath, as he lets himself in through the front door. He always used to call the same thing out to Caro, and she would call back with some witty remark, but now there is only silence. ‘Em? Are you about?’ He drops his laptop bag by the front door and peers into the sitting room, where he sees Emily tucked up in the huge armchair, her feet curled up underneath her. ‘Are you OK?’

Emily has lit the candles that line the mantelpiece, and switched on the tiny Tiffany lamp that Caro bagged at a flea market in Brooklyn years ago, but the dim lighting does nothing to hide the dark circles under her eyes. She looks up at him, almost as though she hasn’t realized he was there. ‘Oh, you’re home.’ Her eyes wander to the clock on the wall and then back to his face. ‘Yes, I’m fine. I didn’t hear you come in.’ She gets to her feet, and as she goes to pass by him, he pulls her into his arms.

‘I missed you today. What did you get up to?’ He nuzzles her hair and she leans against him, her arms loosely round his waist.

‘I had a bit of a day, actually.’ Emily sighs, pushing her shoulder-length, blonde hair behind her ears as she wriggles out of his grasp and heads towards the kitchen.

‘Oh, why’s that?’ Rupert follows her, watching as she opens the fridge door and pulls out a bottle of Sauvignon.

‘Just silly things, really.’ She blinks, as if to hold back tears, and shakes her head. ‘I went to the yoga class today with Sadie. It was kind of her to invite me. It must be hard for her to see you move on after Caro.’

‘Yes, Sadie is lovely. So, what was the problem with the yoga class?’ Rupert reaches over to take the wine bottle from Emily’s hand as she struggles with the corkscrew.