Rav is gone when I open my eyes. My entire body aches and for a moment I wonder why before remembering the events of just a few hours before. A thick, purple bruise has formed around my wrist where Rav yanked me from the water, a sore, twisted bracelet made of finger marks. I push myself up the bed, the dent of Rav’s head still on the pillow next to me, and from the bathroom I can hear water running. The remnants of the dream still swirl in my mind, so real I can almost feel the fabric of the pillow in my hands. I feel sick and my head throbs, just as it did in the dream, and I swallow down the bile that seems to creep up my throat. Rav has left his phone on the bedside table. With a stealthy glance towards the still sleeping baby, as if worried he’ll see me, I reach over and pick it up. I flick quickly to his WhatsApp messages. Sure enough, there is another exchange between him and Naomi.

Can we meet?

This from Rav, sent at four o’clock this morning, just a couple of hours after he had pulled me from the pond.

Something has happened with Allie. It’s really serious this time.

Of course.

Naomi had replied at a little after five thirty this morning. She would have been on her way back from the flower market, I think.

Meet me at The Blue and White at 7.30 a.m.?

I’ll be there.

The Blue and White is a café around a twenty-minute drive from here – in the opposite direction to Rav’s office. Naomi and I used to make a point of meeting there at least once a week after Mina was born, leaving Rav to look after her while we caught up with each other. Naomi used to moan every week about the fact that I left Mina behind, but I needed that hour to just be Allie, not Mina’s mum or Rav’s wife. Now I wonder if she was planning this even then. Rav must be keen to cement his plans if he’s prepared to meet her there, and at that time, meaning he will be late for work. I glance at the time on the phone screen. It’s a little after six thirty. The shower turns off and I hurriedly lay the phone back on the bedside table, closing my eyes as if still sleeping.

‘Oh.’ I blink groggily as Rav enters the room, a towel around his waist. His face looks grey with exhaustion, despite the hot shower. ‘You’re up early. Meeting?’