Hope and I looked at each other. The expression in her eyes told me that she had no former idea about any of what Joe was saying. She was as shocked as I was, more so because she had been a part of Wynmouth when the crash happened.

‘By the time I had come out of the trance the shock of the crash had plummeted me into,’ Joe continued, ‘everyone was running with the assumption that it was Sam who had been driving because it was his car.’

‘But you were never charged?’ I said, turning to Sam. ‘You weren’t arrested, were you?’

‘No,’ he said, ‘I wasn’t. Joe always maintained he couldn’t remember which seats he’d pulled me and his brother out of and so there was insufficient evidence to arrest me.’

‘But I did know,’ Joe elaborated with a sob rising in his chest. ‘I knew it was Jack, but seeing my parents so bereft and so broken by the loss of their boy, I just couldn’t bring myself to admit it. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t tell them that, or confess my part in it. I was the biggest coward.’

‘No,’ Sam said, ‘like I told you earlier, you weren’t a coward, Joe.’

‘And, I never wanted to leave Wynmouth either,’ Joe carried on, refusing to acknowledge Sam’s kindness and sniffing hard as his tears flowed, ‘or the farm, but I couldn’t stay here and live with the guilt. I might have saved my parents from further heartbreak, Sam, but there hasn’t been a single day since that horrific night when I haven’t hated myself for letting you shoulder the blame.’

‘Did you know?’ Hope asked, turning to Sam. ‘Did you know it was Jack?’

There was a beat of time before he answered.

‘Yes,’ he nodded. ‘I always knew. I had got out to open the back door, because the car was old and it stuck, and that was when Jack jumped in.’

‘But why didn’t you ever say anything?’ Hope asked, her tone was incredulous. ‘I barely left your side in that hospital and you never said a word.’

‘Because to begin with I wasn’t sure whether or not Joe could remember,’ Sam explained, ‘and by the time I had worked out that he did, I knew I wasn’t going to be charged and that calling him out would have been too much for his poor parents to bear.’

‘So, you let everyone think it was you,’ Hope whispered, and Sam nodded.