‘Nate, I can’t even believe you’re saying that. You know what this means to me. You know how much I put into that account.’

‘I do know that, I do. But you have to step back and look at the wider picture. If you start fighting this, then are things really going to be any better? Sure, you might get your account back, but then what? How many extra hours will you have to put in?’

‘I can do it,’ she said, though her words came out in a whisper.

‘I think something else would have to give and …’

‘Something else?’ she asked. ‘You think something already is?’

‘I’m only saying that I honestly don’t know how you’d be able to do it. I don’t begrudge you working, Laura, you know that. I’ve never stopped you. But I don’t want you missing out on Bobby, either. It would be nice to see a bit more of you in the evenings.’

Laura looked away. It was impossible. She was in a no-win situation. ‘I know I could make it work,’ she persisted. ‘I just want to be given the chance to prove it.’

‘I don’t know why you’re getting so het up about it,’ Nate snapped.

‘Argh, I know you don’t,’ she cried. ‘I know you don’t understand, even though I’m trying to get you to. But don’t worry about it. It’s fine. I’ll work through it on my own.’ She flung her hands in the air in surrender.

Nate let out a short laugh and shook his head as he turned towards his window.

‘You’ve no idea how much she’s affecting me, Nate,’ Laura went on, wiping her hand across her eyes. ‘She makes me feel useless.’ She stared at her husband, waiting for him to respond, until it became clear he wasn’t going to.

Laura folded her arms and scrunched herself up as she turned her head away from him and closed her eyes. Something had to give. And if she was going to carry on working, which she couldn’t feasibly see a way out of, then she wasn’t going to sit back and let Mia keep doing her job.

The more she wound herself into knots about Mia, the more she had the unnerving feeling that there was much more to the woman than she realised. And in that moment she became resolute that in the morning she was going to start finding out who Mia was and where she had come from. And she wasn’t going to stop until she did, because Laura didn’t trust one word that came out of Mia Anderson’s mouth.

‘You still want to go out later?’ Nate asked eventually.

She shook her head. ‘No.’

‘Come on, let’s not ruin our day.’ He reached over and squeezed her hand. ‘We can do whatever you fancy.’