‘I doubt that.’

‘There we must agree to disagree.’

Passive aggressive cow. Sophie was almost vibrating with indignation. She looked at Angie, sitting so calmly at her kitchen table, and felt like she might explode. She wanted to run at her, pull her hair, rip it out in strands, scream at her. But she stayed where she was, pushing her folded arms tightly against her body, clenching and unclenching her fists. She used to think that Angie was so beautiful but now all she saw was a bitter, selfish woman and she loathed her for it.

‘I don’t think you’re capable of hating yourself, Angie. You’re too narcissistic. You always have been, I think, although I’m only really seeing it now.’

Angie was looking up at her, perhaps trying to decide whether to defend herself or just sit quietly and let Sophie say what she needed to say. Before she had a chance to make up her mind, Sophie continued. ‘When I first met you, I thought you were a bit of a snob. But I decided to give you the benefit of the doubt. I invited you into my home, into my life. Our children played together. Our husbands drank beer together. As time went on, I began to think of you as the friend I’d never had. But this whole time, you really didn’t give a shit about me, did you?’

‘I did–’ Angie began, but Sophie interrupted her.

‘No, you didn’t. The only person you care about is you. You even let me comfort you, support you, when you thought you were pregnant, even though you knew the baby could be Alan’s. You knew I wanted a baby. How could you do that? How could you be so cruel?’

‘I’m so sorry,’ Angie said but Sophie was barely listening.

‘Do you know how hurt I was when you started giving me the cold shoulder? I thought, What have I done to upset my lovely friend? I tormented myself trying to work it out. Even when Jack warned me about you, I still blamed myself.’

‘What do you mean Jack warned you?’

Sophie felt a short, sharp satisfaction at how quickly Angie had pounced on that. ‘He told me that you were obsessed with your work and that everything else took a back seat, even him and the children. But even then, I still defended you.’ She laughed bitterly. ‘Back then of course I thought the worst thing you’d done was avoid me a few times and forget about our dinner. It didn’t occur to me that you were sleeping with my husband.’

‘I do care about you, Sophie. A lot.’

‘No you don’t! You don’t care about anyone. Did you even like Alan? Or did you just sleep with him because you could? To make yourself feel wanted. Was he the first person you came across or was it a calculated decision? I mean, he’s hardly your type, is he?’

‘It’s hard to explain,’ Angie said. ‘Alan was very kind to me at a time when I needed kindness. I mistook my feelings of gratitude for something else. I didn’t plan what happened and I certainly didn’t set out to seduce your husband, believe me, but I take full responsibility for what happened. I just did something incredibly stupid to make myself feel better.’