Luckily for Liam. The thought rings in my head, circulating like the sound from a Tibetan bowl being rung. It echoes around my skull. Did he kill her? At first, I dismiss the idea, but then it’s as if it’s been planted in the weak compost of my mind and taken root. I look at him out the corner of my eye as he watches football on the TV. I study his hands as he picks up the remote and when he cuts through his steak. Did he push her down the stairs? Did he kill my mum?

He was jealous of her; of the time I spent with her. And I have no shadow of a doubt that he is capable of killing. Sitting beside him on the sofa, pretending like we’re a normal couple, a shudder runs up my spine. He puts his arm around my shoulders, pulling me against his body, and I feel myself tense; I order myself to relax so he doesn’t suspect anything and get angry. But the thought won’t shake from my mind. I woke up in the middle of the night on our wedding night and Liam wasn’t in the bed. I fell back to sleep, and he was there, beside me again, when I woke up in the morning. But what if …

‘What is it?’ Liam asks, frowning at me with an annoyed expression.

I’m staring at him in shock, sick to my stomach, the terrible awareness sinking in that I’m right. I know I am. He went to my mum’s house in the middle of the night and he killed her. He pushed her down the stairs. He made it look like an accident. He knew about the carpet that was sticking up on the landing, because he had promised to nail it down. But he never got around to it. Of course he didn’t! He was setting it all up to get her out of the way. He wanted her dead. He didn’t want to share me. And if my mum was dead, I’d have nowhere to go. Oh my god. My brain struggles to process the thought. What if I’m wrong? I might be. But equally, as I stare at Liam, I know that it is within the realm of possibility. Well within it. And the fact that I can even think that about the man I’m married to is terrifying.

‘What?’ Liam asks angrily, shoving me away. ‘Why are you looking at me like that?’

I can’t stop staring at him. It’s as if I’m seeing a demon in human form right in front of my eyes. But quickly I force my face to return to blankness and offer him a smile. ‘I just love you, that’s all,’ I say.

*