‘Ooh, did the instructor want to see your bum as proof? Was he hot?’ Marie waggles her eyebrows.

‘I thought you had a new man, Marie,’ Carly teases her.

‘It’s early days. It’s complicated.’

‘Actually, the instructor wasn’t bad,’ I say.

‘Don’t let George hear that!’ Carly laughs. ‘You’ll ruin your perfect marriage.’

‘Nothing’s perfect,’ Marie says and the atmosphere that felt lighter moments before feels heavy once again.

Nothing is perfect. My marriage the least of all.

I start when I check the time on my phone. It’s almost time to collect Archie. An email alert tells me my parcel has been delivered. I jump to my feet.

‘I have to go, George will be…’ home to discover my secrets. I finish my sentence in my head. Really, he’s the last person I want to see after last night but I can hardly avoid him.

‘George will be what?’ asks Marie.

‘I just have to go, that’s all.’ My tone is sharper than intended, but then fear has the ability to harden; a soft stomach filled with knots, a tightening of the chest, muscles tense and solid.

The set of a jaw.

A clenching of the fist.

Chapter Seven

Carly

Then

Carly’s fist would often dangle a toy above Bruno the boxer’s head, until he’d hurl himself at her in a bid to reach it, his body slamming into hers, surprisingly heavy and solid. That’s the way her body felt now as she gathered her energy to jump again.

Heavy.

Solid.

As though her blood had been removed and replaced with stone. She was so tired it was almost impossible to move but she had made it outside. She had to keep going.

She was almost at the corner of the building. Strands of her blonde hair worked free from her scrunchie, trailed in front of her eyes. With the tape covering her mouth, she couldn’t huff it away. She wished again her hands were free.

Voices.

Louder now.

Carly took two quick jumps and stopped, shielded by the side of the building. She peeked back around the corner. The men were striding towards the front door, each carrying a twin over their shoulders as though they were weightless. As though they were nothing. The gold crosses the girls wore around their necks inverted like a sign of the devil as they dangled upside down. Not that her family were religious but the twins had discovered early Madonna.

‘I don’t know why you’re so fascinated with her,’ Carly had said just weeks ago as her sisters had chewed gum and loaded their wrists with bangles. ‘She’s been around forever.’

‘So had Marilyn Monroe when you plastered your wall with her posters,’ her stepdad had kindly pointed out. That was true so, instead of laughing at the twins, Carly helped them draw thick black lines under their eyes and crimp their hair when they played dress-up.

Now Leah’s hands – which had donned black lace gloves – were clenched into tight balls as she struggled to be free.