“How is that even possible?” Lauren said.

And a fucking idiot.

Scott gripped his stress ball, squeezed, squeezed some more. “She lied. I asked if she’d ever been married, she said no, and that was good enough for me.”

“But she knew Natalie. She was friends with her.”

“So?” Scott snapped. “It’s not like I know everything about my wife’s friends.”

“Did you know she has a daughter too?”

Scott dropped the ball and massaged his forehead. Lack of sleep was making him drink more and more coffee. The caffeine was making his head pulse. But it was the only way he could stay awake. “No.”

“Scott, I’m sorry…”

“What?”

Lauren fiddled with her bracelet. “It’s nothing.”

“Just say it.”

“Fine. Do you know your wife at all? I don’t understand how you can be married to this person and have no idea of who they really are. Even Fiona – that’s the woman from the book club – even she sensed something was off with Casey.”

“She fucked me blind and she got me addicted to her body. She cooked dinner every night and never once asked me to do the dishes and never asked me to do any chores either. For months I was dead, Lauren, dead after Natalie’s suicide. I felt like I was sleepwalking. And then Casey came along, and… and she brought me back to life.”

“Okay, Scott. All right.”

He realised he’d risen to his feet; he was staring down at Lauren. Lauren’s expression was ridiculous. It was like she thought he was going to lash out at her.

“I’m sorry.” He sat. “All of this, it’s just…”

“I know.”

But Lauren didn’t sound like she’d accepted his apology. Her voice was tight. She was studying him closely, as she sat upright in her chair, as though ready to run away if he leapt at her.

Go on hit me hit me like the fucking big man you are.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“I’ve never seen you like that before.”

“It’s her, what’s happening at home. It’s like all this energy’s bottled up, but I shouldn’t have taken it out on you. It won’t happen again.”

“All right. That’s fine. Yeah.”

They paused for a time. Everything was making Scott want to snap. The children shouting outside the classroom, the dryness of his throat, the pulsing in his head. Even the tinkling sound Lauren’s bracelet made as she endlessly fiddled with it.

“I accepted everything she told me,” Scott said. “She didn’t have social media. I couldn’t find anything about her online. Not that I looked too hard. I was just glad to have somebody.”

“I understand.”

“I need to speak with her husband. He might be able to tell me something.”

Lauren’s expression softened. “I managed to find him on Facebook.”

“How?”

“I had his first name and the fact he’d been married to Casey. There was an article online, celebrating their wedding. Her maiden name was mentioned.”

He didn’t miss the note at the end. “All right then, sue me. I never googled my fiancée. I ate up every last morsel of shit she fed me without second-guessing it. Happy?”