But something is still niggling me regarding what Cassie said about Dina. I slip out from Toby’s embrace. ‘I’ll be back in a minute, okay?’

‘You’re not going after her?’

‘No, just nipping to the loo. I’ll be back in a minute.’

‘Make sure you are. We haven’t had that dance yet.’

I blow my husband a kiss, leave the dancefloor, and head towards the exit. I catch sight of Cassie in the lobby talking to… Lyle – that’s it. She has a face like thunder as he tries to appease her.

She spots me and scowls before rearranging her face into another mask of faked nonchalance. ‘Come to apologise for your husband’s rude comments?’

I don’t waste time with niceties. ‘Cassie, if you’ve got something to say about my sister, why don’t you just spit it out.’

She puts a hand on her boyfriend’s arm. ‘Lyle, would you mind waiting outside for me?’

‘No way. It’s freezing out there!’

‘I won’t be long,’ she wheedles.

‘I’ll wait in the lounge.’ He swaggers off, muttering under his breath.

‘So?’ I glare at my ex-best friend.

‘Fine,’ she huffs. ‘If you must know, your dear darling sister was blackmailing me.’

I drop my defensive stance. Dina was blackmailing Cassie? This is not what I was expecting. Not at all. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘If you’d let me finish… quite soon after I became famous, she got in touch with me. I thought it was weird because although you and I were friends, I never really had a lot to do with your sister. Dina kept herself to herself. Don’t think I’d ever done much more than nod in her direction.’

‘How do you mean, she got in touch? She’d left the country by then.’

‘Yeah, well, she called me. No idea how she got my mobile number. Probably through some moron friend from school.’ Cassie takes a pack of cigarettes from her coat pocket and pulls one out. ‘God, I’m dying for a ciggie, but it’s far too cold to stand out there.’

‘So? What did she want?’

‘What most people want of course – money.’ Cassie curls her lip.

‘And what was she holding over your head?’

‘Oh, it was something and nothing. The little cow was clutching at straws.’

‘So you never paid her?’

Cassie puts the unlit cigarette in her mouth for a moment.

‘Oh, I’m sorry, miss,’ the woman on reception calls over. ‘You can’t smoke in here.’

‘It’s not lit!’ Cassie waves the cigarette and rolls her eyes at the woman before turning back to me with a sigh. ‘I did pay her.’

‘You did? So why—?’

‘Because I had this gig as a TV presenter on a kids’ show and Dina was threatening to tell the papers that I used to deal drugs.’