With private client companies we often find all sorts of money laundering issues.

They will find something, won’t they? Something Ted and I have done wrong without even noticing? What about my time sheets? Have I filled some in incorrectly? Have I charged too much VAT? Not enough? What about Felman Holdings? My heart sinks. They were overseas customers with UK directors. Was I wrong not to charge them VAT? The more I think about it, the more I know I was wrong. My business is over. I’m falling off a precipice.

I pop my head around the drawing room door. My family are watching Disney cartoons, snuggled on the sofa, in a line, eating popcorn.

‘I’m exhausted. I’m going to lie down,’ I tell them.

Their eyes do not move from the TV screen. ‘Can You Feel the Love Tonight’ belts from the surround-sound. Engrossed in The Lion King. They are obsessed with it, watching it time and time again, even though they have already seen it at the theatre, on that dreadful outing with Caprice. The time when she was so rude about the restaurant I chose. The time she lost her temper with me during the interval.

I pad upstairs, limbs like lead. I step into our bedroom, collapse onto our bed, and cry. Softly to begin with, but the more I think about my life, the way it is imploding, the more my sobbing increases. Panic throbs through me like a simmering toothache.

The door bursts open. Miles stares down at me, looking handsome in his weekend casuals. Lips tight. Face like stone. He pushes his golden hair back from his forehead.

‘What’s the matter with you?’ he asks, voice sharp.

I sit up and wipe my eyes. ‘I’m just so worried about the inspection.’

He shakes his head slowly. ‘It isn’t that.’ He pauses. ‘I know there’s something going on between you and Aiden.’

His words stab into me. ‘What? No. Don’t be ridiculous, Miles,’ I reply.

He shrugs. He bites his lip. ‘I saw you together, holding hands in the kitchen.’

I stiffen. ‘It isn’t what you think.’

He walks towards the door to leave. He turns. ‘Isn’t it?’ he almost spits.

I don’t reply. I just look at his ashen face and wither inside. The last thing I wanted to do was to upset my husband again.

‘At least you weren’t kissing him this time.’

His voice pounds against my eardrums like a hammer. My head begins to ache.

130

Miles

‘At least you weren’t kissing him this time,’ I shout so loudly that my jaw vibrates.