Abs imagined that Sasha was his mum, not that she was a bit like his own mother, who he only remembered in flashes of memory that made him wince. When he was a little kid, just a toddler, he remembered her cruel and harsh words. He remembered her when she was pissed-up, shouting at him, calling him names, telling him how worthless he was, how he would amount to nothing.

All Abs had ever wanted was for her to love him and protect him and hold him in her arms, and all she had wanted to do was to get him out of her hair so she could carry on drinking and drugging herself into an early grave. It was no wonder that he craved to be famous, so he could be loved by as many people as possible; so that the whole country would love him, the whole world.

All his life, he could never get enough love.

‘We…’ He thought of Rhiannon Jenkins and felt shame and revulsion at what happened – disgust for the part he played – and he was going to tell the Silver Lady the truth, because she was kind and sympathetic and she would understand. His voice was a croak. ‘We did…’

But Abs had a shot at reuniting with Kelz and getting his career back on track, and it would be madness to give up now. Plus, there was Jez to consider, and Tony. He didn’t have the right to ruin their lives. He was being selfish. His ego wasn’t his amigo.

Besides, if he confessed, nobody would love him any more. The world would turn its back on him, he would be disliked, and he couldn’t face that. He couldn’t bear that at all.

‘What, Abs?’ asked Sasha softly. ‘What did you do?’

‘We did nothing wrong,’ he told her with emotion. ‘Davey Jenkins is wrong, is what he is. Please don’t go to the press with this, they’ll crucify me.’

‘We just want to get to the bottom of why Jenkins would want to attack you,’ she said, looking disappointed.

‘I’ve had stalkers before, yeah, disturbed people who write crazy, hateful letters in purple ink, or who stalk me on the internet. People get this weird stuff in their head about famous people like me, it comes with the job. The truth is, Rhiannon left the pub we were in and we never saw her again.’

‘And you have no idea what became of her?’

He grunted something, because if he spoke he was afraid of what would come out of his mouth.

‘I’m sorry, Abs.’ Sasha cocked her head. ‘I didn’t catch that.’

‘No,’ he said with feeling. ‘We told all this to the police in Wales, me and Tony and Jez, and dearly departed Deano. Look, it’s not good that this is happening right now, because I’m going back on the show.’

‘Congratulations,’ she said.