April hoped Tara was suffering from nothing more than moving day jitters, but it had felt good offering support instead of drawing upon it. Their conversation wasn’t quite enough to chase away all of April’s demons, but it gave her the strength to carry her home.

Concern for her friend was a distraction that saw April through Thursday too. She tried to phone Faith several times to update her, but without success. Tara, meanwhile, sent a message apologising for her minor meltdown and told April not to worry. The crisis seemed to have passed and typically, Tara was more concerned for April’s welfare. Again, April told her she was fine: if she repeated it enough times, one day it might be true.

By Friday, April was within touching distance of the relief she knew she would feel once her audit review was closed. As she sat at her desk, she told herself that discovering Jason’s secret afternoons was as much as she could endure. She wouldn’t be able to cope if she discovered the other woman was someone she knew, someone who was still in her life. She was protecting herself. That was why she had added certain names to her sample list only to remove them when her courage failed.

But with only hours left before her access to the attendance system would be revoked, the temptation to take one last look and inflict more pain became all-consuming and April locked her computer screen and pushed back her chair to create some distance. It was lunchtime and she needed a break. The rest of the team were out on site visits, all except Georgie, who had taken the afternoon off to go Christmas shopping. April had a vague recollection she had done the same the previous year.

That thought led to another, and another, until April was caught in the trap of her deepest insecurities. With dread in her heart, she opened her desk drawer and took out the stone. What if she had misread the second letter? Squinting, she wondered if the lines were a crude attempt to form the letter G rather than an S. Should she check Georgie’s leave records?

But if April did that, what about Sara? What if April had seen what she had wanted to see the day her friend had picked up the stone?