Angie opened the front door and let herself back into the house, closing it behind her with relief. She’d been feeling sick about the school run, terrified that she might run into Sophie, or that all of Sophie’s friends would be huddled together in the playground staring at her, hating her. She deserved it but she didn’t have to like it. However, with Jack not living at home for the time being, she had no choice but to get on with it. She’d made the children leave earlier than usual to reduce the chances of them bumping into the Brennans, much to their disappointment.

‘But, Mum, can’t we scoot to school with Tom and Katie today?’ Ellie had pleaded.

‘Not today, come on,’ Angie had replied.

In the end, they got to school so early that they didn’t see anyone they knew. But on her way home, she saw the Brennan children hurtling towards her in the opposite direction. Her stomach lurched in fear but then she spotted Alan, not Sophie, dashing after them. Their eyes met and they nodded at each other, but they didn’t wave. They hadn’t said a word to one another since the party and she wasn’t sure that there was any point in them talking. They’d fucked up big time. There was never going to be any future for them, and now they both had to focus on fixing the damage they had caused in their own lives. It was each man for himself.

She felt wretched. How had she let this happen? She had known that sleeping with Alan was a mistake but for a short while she just hadn’t cared. She had wanted to feel reckless, rebellious, desired. She never gave much thought to the aftermath until she was in it. Now her husband hated her, her daughter hated her, her best friend hated her and she hated herself. She’d thought she’d hit rock bottom before, but she’d been nowhere near. This, right here, was rock bottom.

Jack could barely look at her. He put on an incredible performance in front of the children, so much so that he had even fooled her once or twice. But when they were alone, he made sure that she was under no illusion as to what he really thought of her.

‘You’ve humiliated me,’ he said to her after Indie’s big reveal. ‘You’ve betrayed me. And with him. Our neighbour. Our friend. How could you have done it, Angie?’

She tried to explain it to him. The way his behaviour had made her feel, her growing mistrust of him, the stress of moving away from their old life, trying to be the best at everything, keeping things locked up inside for so long, and how it had all finally got too much for her. But when she said it out loud it sounded feeble, even to her.

Jack had been scathing. ‘You should have talked to me, Angie. I asked you over and over again what was wrong. Why do you have to bottle everything up all the time, even with your own husband? It’s not natural. And as for not trusting me, I’ve never cheated on you. That was you. You did that.’