She would have preferred the general manager, but she wasn’t in a position to make demands. The frown between her eyes deepened and she reached into her bag for her purse. Taking out her two credit cards, she put them on the desk and pushed them forward. ‘I tried to use them this morning to settle a bill, and they were declined.’ She couldn’t stop the quiver in her voice when she added, ‘Both of them.’

There was no change in Roberts’ expression as he picked the cards up. Without a word, he turned his chair slightly to face the computer screen on his desk. One-handed, he tapped a few keys, picked up one of the cards, tapped some more. A single crease appeared between his eyes. Picking up the second card, he tapped the keys and stared at the screen. Apart from the single crease, his expression didn’t change.

He put the cards back on the desk, then using both hands he tapped keys, his focus on the screen in front of him.

Molly watched as his lips tightened and his eyes narrowed slightly; whatever he was reading there, it wasn’t good.

It was another minute before he turned to look at her.

‘It’s not good news, is it?’ she asked, hoping he’d laugh and disagree.

Instead, he looked at her for a moment with calm assessing eyes as if trying to decide how much he should say.

‘It’s better to tell me,’ she said, lifting her chin. So much had been thrown at her recently, she was almost getting used to it.

‘I’m afraid it’s not good.’ Roberts reached out and tapped the two cards. ‘These access a joint account with your husband. Both have reached their maximum limit. What I shouldn’t be telling you, is that your husband also has two more, in his name only.’ He took a deep breath before continuing. ‘They also have reached their maximum limit.’ As if he knew she was going to ask, he added, ‘That’s ten grand per card. Forty grand, in total.’

Forty thousand pounds. Molly blinked and gulped.

Roberts’ eyes flicked to the computer screen before coming back to meet hers. He lifted a hand and rubbed it over his mouth.

Molly didn’t need a psychology degree to know what that meant – the fear of speaking because what you were about to say was going to cause pain or distress. She wanted to beg him to get on with it. To throw whatever it was into the maelstrom that was whirling around her. It couldn’t make it much worse.

It could.

‘Are you aware that you’re also behind in your mortgage repayments?’

Molly stared at him for a moment then gave a confused laugh, stopping abruptly when she saw his face. Whereas before it had been expressionless, now, with downturned mouth, he looked sympathetic, almost pitying.