‘I disagree. Your mum is the most calm and capable person I know. She’d have good advice. Yes, it would be a shock, of course it would, but she’ll know what to do for the best.’

‘Absolutely not.’ Toby takes a step back from me so he can look me in the eye, his expression is dark, his eyes hooded. ‘Nick and I already discussed this and we both decided long ago that we’d keep this between ourselves. We can’t afford to tell anyone else. And it’s not fair to involve my parents.’

A sudden wave of guilt engulfs me. Toby’s been protecting me all these years, living with this knowledge, and yet loving me anyway. And now I’m talking about putting his family in danger. How can he even bear to look at me? I don’t deserve him. ‘You’re right. I’m sorry. Of course we shouldn’t involve your mum and dad. I was being selfish.’

Toby’s face softens. ‘No, not at all. Look, I’ve had years to process this. To go through all the pros and cons of what to do and what not to do. You’ve only just found out, so it’s going to take a while to come to terms with what happened.’

‘But what about my dad? Surely he has a right to know about Dina. She’s his daughter! What if – God forbid – what if it were Alice or Jamie? Wouldn’t we have a right to know?’ Although I realise that if I tell my father, I’ll also have to tell him that it was my fault. I’ll have to confess what I did.

Toby holds both my arms and looks into my eyes. ‘Zoe, I know this is hard, but you’re going to have to learn to live with this. I’d rather not have told you at all, but my brother…’ He lets go of me and blows out a noisy breath. ‘If I hadn’t told you, Nick would have said something. He’s already a loose cannon, freaking out about this bloody development. Like I said yesterday, I’m going to have to do something about her body.’

An unwelcome image comes to my mind. If she’s been buried out there for ten years, then what does she look like now? My milky coffee curdles in my throat.

‘I’m sorry.’ Toby has the grace to look down. ‘I shouldn’t have brought that up again. This is all so fresh for you. Like I said, Nick and I have had years to get used to it. Well, not used to it, but…’ He trails off, probably realising that there’s no tactful way to talk about this.

I walk across the room, trying to shake the image, when something else pops into my head. I turn back to look at my husband. ‘Something doesn’t add up.’