‘Of course,’ I say, patting the sofa next to me. ‘Oh, Lottie, I’ve missed you so much. It’s been hell without you.’

‘I know,’ she whispers, hugging me. ‘I can’t imagine what you’ve been through being stalked like that.’

I pull away from her and put my head in my hands.

‘I’m so sorry, Lottie,’ I murmur, tears blinding me. ‘About everything. I messed up. I know I did. I let you down but … why were you with Connor this morning when you’d asked me to meet you? I don’t understand.’

‘I didn’t ask to meet you,’ she says, grabbing a tissue from the box on Georgie’s coffee table and handing it to me. ‘You texted me to meet you at that cafe. You said it was really urgent. When I turned up and saw Connor I thought the two of you were up to something.’

‘A message from me?’

‘I thought it was a bit strange,’ she says, brushing her hair from her face. ‘Because it was through Messenger but the name came up as Vanessa Iris Adams and I knew that wasn’t your middle name. The profile photo was different too. But then I clicked on the page and it looked like you’d just set up a new account. All your friends were on there and all your holiday photos. So I replied and said, okay, I’d be there.’

‘Gabriel,’ I whisper, remembering how he talked about my online life, how he could build a world around what I had put out there. ‘But Connor?’ I say, my head throbbing. ‘Why was he there?’

‘Same as me,’ says Lottie. ‘He said you’d messaged him asking to meet at that coffee shop at the same time.’

What was Gabriel doing? What was he trying to achieve? I wonder just how much he had discovered through the information I had put out. He obviously had some plan for bringing Lottie and Connor together and to have me see them. Then I realize: he was trying to make me think they were together, that the two people I had been closest to were not to be trusted. That way he could have me all to himself.

‘You know I’ve never really liked Connor. But I thought you’d come soon, so I was making awkward small talk with him,’ she says, her voice shaking. ‘Then he said that you two had split up, that you’d gone crazy and basically had a nervous breakdown. He said he’d almost called the police on you because you slapped his mother. He told me I should leave too, that you were unstable, dangerous. It was crazy, Nessa. I didn’t know what to think. It didn’t sound like you at all but then I hadn’t seen you for so long … Maybe you’d … I don’t know, changed.’